262 FLO WEBS AND BEDDiyO PLANTS, 



tractecl such numbers of admirers and chroniclers of their beauty, 

 that, in faihng to do justice to them by any observations of our 

 own, there is a satisfaction in knowing that scores of tlieir devoted 

 admirers have written lovingly and sensibly of them ; and from 

 their pages, we may glean and present such general information 

 concerning the relative rank, characters, and habits of the various 

 roses as comes within the scope of a work on the arts of arrange- 

 ment, rather than a floral manual of classification or culture. 



In all the languages of civilized nations volumes have been 

 written on the history, the poetical and legendary associations, the 

 classification, and the culture of the rose ; so that, whoever desires 

 to be especially well informed on any branch of knowledge per- 

 taining to roses will seek among the books in his own language 

 for the special and full information he desires. As roses come 

 properly under the head of shrubs, we shall, under that head, 

 give so much on the subject as may be necessary in connec- 

 tion with the embellishment of suburban places, together with a 

 plate of designs for rose-beds, of a great variety of sizes and forms, 

 with various selections of roses that may be used to advantage in 

 filling them. We will only add here what has before been men- 

 tioned in connection with the subject of arrangement, that the 

 planting of rose-bushes, as isolated small shrubs on a lawn, is al- 

 most always a misplacement. There are a few sorts, especially 

 some of the wild bush-roses, which form fine compact bushes, 

 sufficiently well foliaged to be pleasing all the summer months 

 when not in bloom ; but the greater part of the finest roses, par- 

 ticularly the perpetuals which make a straggling and unequal 

 growth, produce a far finer effect when planted pretty snugly in 

 masses. A practice of planting each root of a sort by itself, like 

 so many hills of potatoes, is quite necessary in commercial 

 gardens where they are grown for sale, and each of a hundred 

 varieties must be kept distinct from every other, so that it may be 

 distinguished readily, and removed for sale without injury to the 

 others ; but this is wrtrr>^^/-gardening, not decorative, and the least 

 interesting of all modes of cultivating the rose. Decidedly, the 

 prettier way in small collections is to learn first what is the com- 

 parative strength of growth and height of the several plants which 



