ON NEW ROSES. 83 



sending out new Roses under false descriptions that 

 cannot be honestly recommended ; it is only due to 

 them, however, as a body to say that there are those 

 among them who have as high a sense of honour as any 

 English cultivator. 



Whatever the New Roses of 1855 may have done at 

 Sawbridgeworth, I adhere to my opinion formed from 

 the blooming here, that the present season has been 

 more prolific than many in the introduction of valuable 

 novelties. 



I cannot agree with Mr R. in the high value he 

 sets on the " Perpetual Moss Roses." Certainly they 

 are new, and there is something in the name, but I 

 regard our present varieties merely as the germ of a 

 group which will require years of close and successful 

 cultivation before its presence becomes indispensable in 

 the Rose garden. At the close of this article Mr R, 

 remarks "One, after thirty years of admiration, is apt 

 to become fastidious, and to require great perfection in 

 shape, in colour, and in habit." This is no doubt true, 

 and perhaps may be taken to account for the severe 

 treatment the New Roses of the last year have met 

 with at his hands. Although in the Florist of October 

 1855 Mr Rivers writes "One almost fears the point of 

 perfection has been attained, and that no better Roses 

 than those we now possess can or will be originated " 

 it would, perhaps, be hardly fair to infer that Mr 

 R. doubts the progression of races. This indeed cannot 

 be, for while depreciating New Roses he recommends 

 a list of no less than twenty-eight new varieties of 

 Pears (see Gardeners' Chronicle of the 2/th of December 

 last). It seems rather that he has forgotten the old 

 proverb " Nature does not advance by leaps," and 

 expects too much from his "old friend of thirty years 

 standing, the Rose." This proverb applies with peculiar 

 force to the various families of flowers. Every raiser of 

 seedlings knows that Nature does not advance by leaps. 



