84 ON NEW ROSES. 



To look on New Roses as they appear from year to year 

 improvement is perhaps not great. 



If we are seeking for striking results we must look 

 backward into the storehouse of time. I remember many 

 years ago the late Sir Abraham Hume, who was a great 

 patron of gardening, presenting my father with half-a- 

 dozen roots of Single Dahlias. How they were prized ! 

 Every seed was saved and sown, and when the single row 

 of flat petals surrounding a yellow disc was converted into 

 a double flower, how great was the acquisition ? Those 

 were halcyon days for lovers of dahlias. The ground was 

 new and uncultivated, and numbers of valuable kinds, real 

 acquisitions, were readily obtained. As the improvement 

 went on, " Excelsior," the improver's motto, his standard 

 ever receding as he advanced, the ascent became more 

 difficult and gradual. But it still went on. If we compare 

 the best modern dahlias with the original single ones, or 

 even with the early double ones, we cannot fail to be 

 impressed with the results. I remember also my young 

 eyes being delighted with the beautiful portraits of pelar- 

 goniums in Sweet's work, but what are they in point of 

 beauty compared with the pelargoniums of this day ? 

 Here again Nature did not advance by leaps, the improve- 

 ment was gradual, and if we had neglected those very 

 gradual advances we must have foregone the present 

 grand results. But let me come to my Roses, and I 

 will in this instance look back eight years only, in order 

 to show more vividly the effects of gradual improvement. 



In 1848 the " Rose Garden " was published, wherein all 

 Roses then under cultivation, good and bad, new and old, 

 are described. In 1853 (a period of five years) the varieties 

 since introduced were described in a supplement, and 

 among them I find Moss : Duchesse d'Abrantes, Gloire 

 des Mousseuses, Madame Alboni, Princess Alice (Paul's), 

 the last-named not one of the " others " mentioned by Mr 

 Rivers as purchased in France the purchaser retaining the 

 right of naming them but raised by my own hands from 



