264 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



very little yellow and still less shape ; Persian 

 Yellow, in hue golden, glorious, but in size a big 

 buttercup : and sometimes a bud of Smith's Yel- 

 low, which no power on earth could induce to 

 open, a pretty button-hole flower. Now we have 

 ■Celine Forestier, La Boule d'Or, Perle des Jardins, 

 Perle de Lyons, Triomphe de Rennes, Reine de 

 Portugal, and magnificent Marechal Niel ! Fancy 

 Smith's Yellow in a modern collection — Tom 

 Thumb on parade with the Guards ! 



The names which I have just written again 

 remind me* how much the Tea and Noisette 

 Roses diversify and beautify our show collections. 

 That the former are delicate and difficult to pro- 

 duce when we most require them, is evident from 

 their sparse appearance in public ; but it is just 

 one of those superable difficulties which separate 

 the sincere from the spurious Rose-grower, and 

 which only the former overcomes. The conserva- 

 tory and the orchard-house (there ought to be, 

 wherever there is taste and opulence, a Rose- 

 house) are undoubtedly the best homes for the 

 Tea Rose ; but in this more genial temperature it 

 blooms long before the showman's opening day ; 

 and I have seen houses containing many hundred 

 plants which have not contributed to the exhibitor 



^ See page 2^2. 



