VI PREFACE. 



selves. From the former I have culled the choicest 

 and the sweetest, bidding adieu to many old 

 varieties, on account of their being surpassed by 

 some that are new, but retaining those old roses 

 not to be surpassed, i. e. those that are absolutely 

 perfect in their form and colouring, which will all 

 be found in their places : for it would indeed be 

 unjust to neglect a good old friend with sterling 

 qualities. 



In cultivation much improvement has taken 

 place ; and rapid progress has been made in the 

 culture of roses in pots : under this head I have 

 given fully the results of my experience. In the 

 articles on propagation, the fruits of more than 

 thirty pleasant years' unceasing attention are given 

 with candour. I have nothing withheld, nor, I 

 trust, aught forgotten. 



A practical cultivator, in writing on cultivation, 

 labours under a disadvantage ; he almost obsti- 

 nately supposes that everyone must know some- 

 thing relative to these, with him, every-day opera- 

 tions : he is apt, therefore, not to go sufficiently 

 into detail. I have strenuously combated this 

 feeling, and humbly trust that what I have written 

 on that subject will be found sufficiently explicit. 



HOSE HILL, SAWBRIDGBWOBTH, HERTS : 

 May 1863. 



