180 The Rose Garden. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



On Tea-Scented Roses. 



SOME one has called these flowers the elite of the Rose Garden. And if elegance 

 of form, with tints and odours rare as they are delicate, entitle them to this 

 distinction, it was a happy thought, for they possess these in a remarkable degree. 

 There is a sprightliness of bearing, a careless grace of plant and flower, that is without 

 parallel among the most distinguished of other groups. Look at that long primrose- 

 coloured bud of " Th Jaune " just unfolding how exquisitely the petals are 

 arranged ! Can anything surpass in fragrance those half-expanded flowers of 

 Madame de St Joseph? What a treasury of beauty is presented to the eye and 

 mind by the myriads of apricot-coloured blossoms clustering upon that pyramid of 

 Madame Falcot. The large snowy blossoms of Niphetos, too, are nowhere equalled, 

 and Adam, Catherine Mermet, Comtesse de Nadaillac, Devoniensis, Gloire de Dijon, 

 Marshal Niel, Souvenir d'un Ami, and many others, can hardly be too highly 

 praised. 



But beautiful as these Roses often are in favourable soils and situations out of 

 doors, many of them must be grown under glass to ensure a constant development of 

 flowers in that state of perfection to which they are capable of attaining. 



Some years ago, in Paxton's " Magazine of Botany," I called attention to the 

 culture of Tea-scented Roses under glass. Convinced by experiments already tried, 

 that a house of Tea Roses would prove an interesting feature in these nurseries, and 

 tempted by the reasonable rate at which such a structure might be built, I erected 

 here, some forty years since, a house expressly for the purpose. It had a span roof, 

 sloping to the east and west. It was 50 feet long, 20 feet wide, 10 feet from .the ridge 

 to the ground, with lights opening at the top and sides. There was a bed all round the 

 inside next the walls, and a bed in the centre, and a walk between the centre and 

 side beds. The beds were raised a foot above the level of the walk, the edgings of 

 which were of 4-inch brickwork ; the house was heated, and the entire cost was 

 under 70. 



Conceiving that it may be interesting to the uninitiated to follow the details of 

 this system of culture, I shall here endeavour to describe my practice as clearly 

 and briefly as possible. 



