CHAPTER XVI. 



GARDEN CLASSIFICATION. 



HE varieties of a plant are, by Botanists, de- 

 signated by names intended to convey an 

 idea of certain characteristics, — the form 

 and consistency of the leaves — the arrange- 

 ment, number, size, and color of the flowers, 

 seed-vessels, &c. The varieties of roses, 

 however, have so few distinct characteristicSj 

 that amateurs find it difficult to give any name expressive of the 

 very slight shades of difference in the color or form of the flower. 

 Fanciful names have therefore been chosen, indiscriminately, 

 according to the taste of the grower ; and we thus find classed, 

 in brotherly nearness, Napoleon and Wellington, Q,ueen Vic- 

 toria and Louis Philippe, Othello and Wilberforce, with many 

 others. Any half-dozen English or French rose growers may 

 give the name of their favorite Wellington or Napoleon to a rose 

 raised by each of them, and entirely different, in form and color 

 fi-om the other five bearing the same name. Thus has arisen 

 the great confusion in rose nomenclature. 



A still greater difficulty and confusion, however, exists in the 

 classification adopted by the various English and French rose 

 growers. By these, classes are multiplied and roses placed in 

 them without sufficient attention to their distinctive characters ; 

 these are subsequently changed to other classes, to the utter con- 

 fusion of those who are really desirous of attaining some know- 

 ledge of the respective varieties. Even Rivers, the most correct 

 of them all, has in several catalogues the same rose in as many 



