8o ON NEW ROSES. 



repudiated the New Roses two or three years since (and 

 there were many), whether their collections have not 

 suffered in consequence ? And I believe there are as good 

 New Roses now as then. The object is to reach them ; to 

 draw out by the exercise of the judgment the few real 

 diamonds from amidst the multiplicity of paste imitations 

 glittering on every hand. To wait till these are known- 

 demonstrated to be invaluable is to lose all the hope of 

 expectation, the surprise of novelty, and one or two years 

 of the enjoyment of possession. 



[From " The Gardeners' Chronicle" Dec. vjth 1856, p. 855.] 



WHATEVER I may think of your correspondent " A. R.'s" 

 knowledge of Roses, I must give him credit for skill in 

 argument. I humbly submit, however, that his skill is 

 that of the dexterous pleader rather than of the sound 

 logician. Now " A. R." says, " The old Roses are the best 

 yet," and among "12 not beaten yet" he includes La 

 Reine, Madame Laffay, General Jacqueminot (Hybrid 

 China), Louis Buonaparte, and William Jesse. I, in good 

 faith, differ from him, and am content to leave the public 

 to judge between us ; to decide whether these Roses are or 

 are "not beaten yet/' and whether after reducing the 

 numerous varieties of Roses to "the 12 best" (mark this) 

 they are more than second rate. This is the real question 

 at issue between us, and as " A. R." writes anonymously, I 

 might be allowed to leave the matter here without noticing 

 the insinuations contained in his article of last week. But 

 as the triumph of truth is alone my object, I will endeavour 

 to clear away the dust-clouds in which his dashing charge 

 has enveloped the matter. In the first place, he ought in 

 fairness to have seen that in my original article I spoke of 

 these Roses in comparison with his 12 "not beaten yet;" 

 whereas in the catalogues they are spoken of in comparison 

 with about 700 varieties. This alone explains the 

 apparent discrepancies so triumphantly paraded. 



