THE ROSE GARDEN 139 



moment, it is singularly foolish to despise what 

 is new, if at the same time it is worthy of 

 admiration. 



Entirely apart, however, from any question 

 of fashion, it is undeniable that in no branch 

 of horticulture have such amazing strides been 

 made during the last few years as in the variety, 

 beauty, and hardiness of the Tea and Hybrid 

 Tea Roses. As I turn to a classic that lies open 

 before me, a precious old copy of Riverc' " Rose 

 Guide," full of my father's notes made long 

 before I was born, and compare its list of Tea 

 Roses with a handful picked in my own garden 

 half-an-hour ago, I cannot but wish that Mr. 

 Rivers, and Victor Verdier and his old uncle 

 Monsieur Jacques of Neuilly could revisit the 

 earth for an hour, and see to what results their 

 faithful patient work in the early part of the 

 nineteenth century has led. Pactole, with its 

 delicate and deliciously fragrant pointed buds, 

 for which we look in vain save in a very few 

 catalogues, is one of the choicest treasures in 

 Rivers' list ; and Devoniensis, beautiful now as 

 then, is the only other survivor of some fifteen 



