122 AUTUMNAL ROSES. 



de M. Rousseau, Paul Feval, Wilhelm Pfitzer, Madame 

 Clemence Joigneaux (good, but common in colour), 

 Turenne, Madlle. Claudine d'Offoy, and Francois Louvat. 

 The number of good new Roses brought out in 

 1861-62 was certainly above the average, and there was 

 a large accession of what are termed velvety Roses. 

 Velvety Roses ! It may fairly be asked, what are they ? 

 There is a something on the face of the petals of certain 

 Roses, that which we have hitherto endeavoured to express 

 by the word " velvety," but this word is wholly in- 

 adequate to convey the real appearance. The richest 

 velvet, however soft and pleasing, is dull and heavy- 

 looking beside our flower ; the latter has all the softness 

 and richness of velvet, and a something superadded which 

 I have never met with except in the petals of flowers, the 

 coats of insects, or the plumage of birds. The pen cannot 

 describe it, the pencil cannot paint it. What we should 

 call it I do not know. May we look on it as analogous 

 to the youthful tint on the human cheek the " glow of 

 life" which forms so broad a line of demarcation between 

 the animate and inanimate, which constitutes alone an 

 immeasurable distance between the simplest works of 

 nature and the highest efforts of art. 



No. VI. AUTUMNAL ROSES. 



[From " The Gardeners' Chronicle? 1863,^. 413.] 



LAST year's brood, the proved new Roses, have been 

 already dealt with, and they were, as a whole, the best 

 lot ever issued in a single year. Let us now endeavour 

 to obtain some glimpses of this year's novelties, the forth- 

 coming brood, some of which only have yet bloomed in 

 England, and these under glass. The opinions expressed 

 concerning them must not be taken as fixed and unalter- 

 able ; although the majority were seen and described in 

 the raisers' grounds last summer, and are now blooming 



