224 The Rose Garden. 



serve and save seed from the finest varieties, and by planting them in the most favour- 

 able soil, he materially improved them. He did not long work single-handed ; other 

 florists joined him, and the results are now before us the flowers are changed from 

 an irregular and indescribable form, and become quite circular. I do not know 

 whether he adopted artificial fertilisation in his course of practice, but others have 

 done so. 



Take another instance. The Dahlia when first introduced into England was 

 single, the flowers had but one row of petals, the centre being occupied with a yellow 

 disk ; they resembled a single Aster. The first double Dahlias had long narrow 

 flat pointed petals, and were very different in character from the present favourites. 

 The florist and amateur disliked the pointed flat-petalled flowers, and they raised an 

 ideal standard of perfection. All their endeavours were directed towards the attain- 

 ment of this ideal. Dahlias, said they, should not be flat flowers, but circular, forming 

 half a ball ; the petals should not be long and pointed, but short, rounded at the 

 edge, and cupped. Now mark the change that has followed. The Dahlia has, so to 

 speak, been re-modelled.* 



So doubtless it has been with the Rose, though its development has been more 

 gradual, has been spread over a greater extent of time, and has, consequently, been 

 less marked than in the above cases. We must remember that the Rose is not a 

 flower recently risen into favour, deriving its popularity from cultivators of the 

 present day alone ; it is of the highest antiquity ; and the ancients having cherished it 

 so much, we may fairly presume they would bestow some pains on its cultivation. 

 It is not then, I think, surprising, when we consider the length of time the Rose has 

 been under cultivation, and how freely the numerous species of which it is composed 

 intermix it is not, I say, surprising that the varieties are removed to a greater 

 distance from the species than in either of the above-mentioned flowers. 



The Dahlias are the offspring of a single species ; the Heartsease arose from 

 two ; but the Roses of our day claim no less than twenty species as their progenitors. 

 Should we not expect, then, from a larger surface on which to build, and a greater 

 quantity and choice of materials, added to which, time almost unlimited, a super- 

 structure to arise more grand, more varied, and more perfect ? 



In grouping the varieties I have endeavoured not to increase more than necessary 

 the number of groups into which, on the authority of Rose cultivators, the Rose at 

 present stands divided. It were easy to effect a different arrangement, and perhaps 

 a better one ; but it is questionable whether the improvement would be sufficient to 

 compensate for the confusion that must necessarily arise from such a step. In few 

 instances have I therefore formed fresh groups ; and where I have thought varieties 



* Since this was written the Cactus and Pompon Dahlias have become new and popular types of this 

 flower. 



