ROSES FOR EXHIBITION. 233 



30 years' experience, having grown the two stocks 

 side by side, in a variety of seasons and soils, but 

 also from inspection and inquiry. Latterly I have 

 made a point of asking at our exhibitions the 

 parentage of Roses which have been admired the 

 most ; and the answers have been, with few ex- 

 ceptions, as I foreknew they would be, from " the 

 Brier." In Dorsetshire, in the summer of 1868, 

 two of our best Rosarians (if they read these 

 Hnes, a brother's love to them) *' discoursed as 

 they sat on the green," and when they had dis- 

 coursed, it was written by one of them (see the 

 Joiirnal of Horticulticre for August 13, 1868): 

 " For general use tJie Brier is doomed / . . . 

 it is time to think seriously of discarding it." But 

 then he adds, and I pray you to mark the reserva- 

 tion : " Exhibitors will not do so, I believe, for the 

 maiden blooms from a Bmer are superior to those 

 from the Manetti.'' But no earnest lover of the 

 Rose will be satisfied with inferior blooms, having 

 the hope of better ; and it should have been 

 stated accordingly, not that the Brier is doomed, 

 nor to be discarded, but that as it has been 

 hitherto used — namely, as a Standard — it is 

 short-lived, specially illustrating the sorrowful 

 fact: 



