On Locality, Soils, &c. 51 



also the Gloire de Dijon and Noisette Ophirie and Aime Vibert. These also had 

 grown freely under the shelter of a wall or fence, and were now producing many 

 fine flowers. In the garden of the vicarage at Herne, the residence of the Rev. 

 J. R. Buchanan, is a collection large enough to include a great number of the best 

 sorts of Hybrid Perpetuals and Tea-scented, and I never saw plants in better health 

 or finer bloom. In this garden, one and a half miles from the sea, were La France, 

 Etienne Levet, Charles Lefebvre, Dupuy Jamain, Frangois Michelon, Baroness 

 Rothschild, and others amongst the Hybrid Perpetuals. Perle des Jardins, Rubens, 

 Madame Falcot, Anna Ollivier, Madame Lambard, Comtesse de Nadaillac, and other 

 Tea-scented kinds, budded on dwarf standard Dog Rose, were beautiful in the 

 extreme ; two rows of these I had never seen surpassed. The soil was unquestion- 

 ably good, but the cultivation was even better ; not a plant but bore marks of 

 thoughtful attention. Close to this vicarage is Strode Park, and here Roses were 

 seen to flourish well under good gardening ; the plants were in the rudest health, 

 and covered with a wealth of handsome flowers. The standard Roses in beds on 

 the lawn were most effective. Herne is only one of many sea-side places where I 

 have searched for Roses during the last few years. I quote this because the most 

 recently visited, and therefore the freshest in my memory. The conclusions I have 

 drawn from these and other visits are : 



1. That the sea air is not prejudicial to the growth of Roses. 



2. It is the fierce and cold blasts from off the sea that hinder growth and maul 

 and spoil the flowers. 



3. Given a good soil and shelter under a hill, bank, belt of trees, or wall and 

 good cultivation, and Roses may be grown at the sea-side to produce flowers equal 

 to the majority of those exhibited at the Rose shows. 



We have said that soils are capable of improvement, and we take it for granted 

 that everyone has his garden under his own control, so far as improvement goes. 

 To this point let us now direct attention. 



In the first place, if our soil be wet, it should be drained. Roses will never 

 flourish well or long in a soil naturally wet. As few plants will, if a garden be of 

 this nature, it would seem desirable, before attending to other improvements, to 

 drain it wholly and thoroughly. 



Let us suppose we have a piece of clayey undrained land, on which we are 

 about to form a Rosarium. We defer planting the Roses till spring, availing 

 ourselves of the autumn and winter for the amelioration of the soil, unless, indeed, 

 there has been an opportunity of working it during the previous winter and summer, 

 when autumn planting is preferable. There is not, however, often a chance of doing 

 this ; and we will suppose it taken in hand in October, just after a crop has been 

 removed from it. Our first object is to secure a perfect drainage. This may be 

 done by digging drains three feet deep, at about ten yards apart, and laying 



