224 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



for a moment to ask : What is your definition of 

 a Show-Rose ?" 



** Most gladly, my dear young friends," replies 

 the kind professor (anxiously wishing his dear 

 young friends in bed, that he might work at his 

 new book on beetles), " will I inform a curiosity 

 so honorable, so rare in youth. I propose, there- 

 fore — avoiding all prolixity, repetition, tautology, 

 periphrasis, circumlocution, and superfluous ver- 

 bosity — to divide the subject into forty-seven 

 sections," etc. etc. etc. 



Leaving him at it, let us be content to know 

 that a Show- Rose should possess: 



1. Beauty of form — petals, abundant and of 

 good substance, regularly and gracefully disposed 

 within a circular symmetrical outline. 



2. Beauty of color — brilliancy, purity, endu- 

 rance. And, 



3. That the Rose, having both these qualities, 

 must be exhibited in the most perfect phase of its 

 beauty, and in the fullest development to which 

 skill and care can bring it. 



Of course I do not presume, reverting to the 

 shape of a Show- Rose, to propose stereotyped 

 definitions or uniform models. On the contrary, 

 I am well aware that whether the surface of a Rose 

 be globular, cupped, or expanded, and whether 



