PREFACE. Xlll 



discovered, at the commencement of the pre- 

 sent century, in a cottager's garden among a 

 plantation of roses of the Hundred-leaved, or 

 Cabbage kind, which is peculiarly subject to 

 sports, either from the excessive vigour or im- 

 perfect vegetation of the subject. The mossy 

 Rose de Meaux, or Pompon Mousseux, was 

 discovered five-and-twenty years ago in the 

 garden of an old lady in the west of England, 

 of whom it was purchased by a nurseryman for 

 five guineas, certainly a sport, as the Rose de 

 Meaux is known never to bear seed in England. 

 The Ayrshire roses were chiefly obtained from 

 seed at Dundee, in Scotland. Brown's Superb 

 Blush was raised at Slough near Windsor; a 

 seedling of the Rosa Indica Odorata, and the 

 Yellow Sweetbriar, at Pitmaston, by Mr. Wil- 

 liams. To enter into the origin of even the 

 finer modern varieties would, however, be an 

 endless task. 



A resident on the continent, I can judge only 

 by report, of the daily multiplying rosaries of 

 England ; of which the finest are said to be 

 that of the Horticultural Society, formed by 

 Professor Lindley, and of the Duke of Devon- 



