86 THE WILD GARDEN. 



the Riviera is suggestive of what we may obtain in our 

 own climate later, by using the free kinds on their own roots, 

 or on stocks equally hardy and not less vigorous, as in the 

 case of the Banksian Eoses mentioned below : — 



On my last excursion from Marseilles to Genoa, I was greatly 

 struck, as any one seeing them for the first time would be, with the 

 magnificence of the Roses all along the Mediterranean shores. The 

 Rose hedges, and the espalier Roses, especially, offer an indescribably 

 "orgeous sight. Under the genial influence of the warm sun of Pro- 

 veuce, from the Corniche to the extremity of the Riviera di Ponente, 

 that is as far as the Gulf of Genoa, and protected to the north liy the 

 mountains, which gradually slope down to the sea -coast, Roses attain 

 the size of Pseonies, and develop a depth and brilliancy of colour and 

 fragrance of unusual hiteiisity. But this is in part due to another 

 cause, or rather two other causes, which lead to the same result, the 

 main point being the choice of suitable subjects for stocks to graft 

 upon. These stocks are, Rosa Banksise and Rosa indica major. The 

 Banksian Rose presents three varieties, namely. White Banksian, pro- 

 ducing a profusion of small white flowers, scarcely so large as those of 

 the double-flowered Cherry, and of a most delicious fragrance ; Yellow 

 Banksian, with still larger clusters of small nankeen -yellow scentless 

 flowers ; Chinese Thorny Banksian, flowers less numerous and ab(jut 

 three times as large as in the two jn-eceding, and of the most grateful 

 odour. These three forms attain an unsurpassable vigour in this region. 

 In two years one plant will cover an immense wall, the gable of a house, 

 or climl) to the top of a tall tree, from which its branches hang like 

 flowery cascades, embalming the air ar(jund with a rich perfume during 

 the months of April and May. Now, if these be taken for stocks upon 

 Avhich to bud some of the choicer Teas, Noisettes, and Bourbons, the 

 growth of the latter will be prodigious. The stock should be two years 

 old, having well ripened, though still smooth, wood. In this way such 

 varieties as Gloire de Dijon, Marechal Niel, Lamarque, Safrano, Chroma- 

 tella, Aimee Vibert, le Pactole, and all the Teas, attain such dimensions 

 as to be no longer recognisable. 



Rosa indica nuijor is almost naturalised throughout the whole of 

 this region. It possesses the additional claim to faAour of flowering 

 nearly all the winter, forming beautiful hedges of dark green shining 

 foliage, from which thousands of clusters of lovely flowers rise, of a 



