1 8 IN TROD UC TION. 



may still be reiterated that among the thou- 

 sands of varieties included in the genus Rosa, 

 there exist far too many similar colors, and, 

 equally, too many varieties whose color fades 

 with the first warm sun, though many of the 

 latter class prove more satisfactory when 

 grown in a moist, cool climate. There 

 might be an abundant weeding of varieties 

 possessing a purplish-magenta shade, to the 

 decided advantage of both growers and gar- 

 dens. Too little attention also is paid in the 

 raising of new varieties and in deciding the 

 merits of exhibition roses, both here and 

 abroad, to one of the most precious virtues of 

 the Rose fragrance 



. . . The coming rose, 



The very fairest flower, they say, that blows, 

 Such scent she hath. 



A blue rose has not yet been produced. 

 But it is not improbable that in the evolution 

 of this favored flower, a variety with a pro- 

 nounced bluish cast, at least, will some day 

 smile upon its sisterhood, the result of the 

 skill of the hybridizer, or the work perchance 

 of the wandering bee. The most recent ex- 

 periments of the hybridizer, in this case Lord 

 Penzance, is a cross known as hybrid sweet- 

 briars, the fragrance of the leaves of the par- 



