FAST LIFE AMONG THE ROSES. 153 



sink under the fast life which, if there is anything in them, 

 they are often compelled to lead ? " 



Many letters have reached me on this subject, and 

 assuming that the writers are readers of " The Florist? I 

 cannot do better than answer them through its pages. 

 One correspondent, writing anonymously (I wish people 

 would not write anonymously), facetiously asks if " I mean 

 to assert that there are fast individuals of the genus Rosa 

 as well as of the genus Homo ; for if so he would wish to 

 have them pointed out, that he may set his mark on them, 

 and have them excluded from the precincts of his domain." 

 Very good ! Another asks whether, as a practical horti- 

 culturist, I can possibly believe in "that absurd theory" 

 the wearing out of races. There are other questions of a 

 more serious, modest, and practical bearing which I need 

 not quote, but I will endeavour to answer all by an 

 amplification of the original sentence. 



First, let me say I had no intention of using the word 

 "fast" in its slang signification, but literally as "swift, 

 moving rapidly, quick in motion " (Walker). I have heard 

 it said of a certain London firm that it kills or incapacitates 

 a new partner by overwork every three years. A clever 

 man and a willing worker is admitted, and finds such 

 scope that he is almost always overtaxed. Now it is much 

 the same with new Roses. So soon as a new Rose is seen 

 and known to be good, it is by some subjected to all sorts 

 of stimulants as excessive heat, moisture, manure, &c. 

 to get the greatest possible quantity of cuttings, grafts, 

 and buds from it in the least possible time ; these are 

 taken off in rapid succession, and the young plants thereby 

 acquired are again and again subjected to the same 

 treatment. As a consequence the tissues are weakened, 

 the functions of nutrition are deranged, and debility 

 ensues from " the fast life which the plant is compelled to 

 lead." I do not say that individual plants cannot be 

 brought back into their original health and vigour by time 

 and skilful treatment ; on the contrary, I have proved that 



