INTRODUCTION. IX 



real merit. Amateurs have hitherto found great 

 difficulty in selecting from the catalogues of nurse- 

 rymen. This treatise, we hope, may be found of 

 service in assisting them to form their collections ; 

 and the index of names, referring, as it does, to the 

 character of every rose mentioned in the work, 

 will, we think, prove especially useful. 



Incorrectness in the name of plants has long 

 been a stigma on commercial gardening ; none can 

 pretend to be quite immaculate in this matter, 

 but all may become still more careful in avoiding 

 these inaccuracies. Every nurseryman is now 

 aware of the great responsibility resting upon him 

 in correct nomenclature, and no honest man will 

 condescend to contribute in spreading the practice 

 of attaching a false name. On this point we think 

 Philadelphia nurserymen are as free from reproach 

 as any in the Union, and I may be permitted to 

 add, that in rose culture they are adepts, living, as 

 they do, as it were in a very hotbed of roses, fos- 

 tered by the judicious management of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, and encouraged by the patronage 

 of the lovers of flowers, who, amongst us, are 

 almost as numerous as the dwellings of our city 

 and county. It would be ungrateful not to add 



