i/2 ROSES AND ROSE SHOWS. 



Waltham, Princess Christian, Princess of Wales, Safrano, 

 Madame Falcot, Aimee Vibert, and Mrs Bosanquet. If 

 the prize-seeker select from this class, he also will fail and 

 be disappointed. These hardy, free-growing, free-flower- 

 ing Roses are not as a rule large enough, or full enough, 

 or regular enough in shape to win 1st prizes. Class 3 

 contains those sorts which are not at one and the same 

 time the best show Roses and the best decorative Roses, 

 but which occupy a sort of debateable ground, standing in 

 various positions between the two, and which may be used 

 for either purpose. General Jacqueminot, Jules Margottin, 

 Dr Andry, Beauty of Waltham, and Lord Macaulay are 

 examples of this class. Let it be remarked, then, that our 

 present Rose shows draw principally from class I, shut out 

 almost entirely the varieties of class 2, and admit but few 

 from class 3, and these only from necessity and under 

 protest. It was once remarked to me by one of our 

 cleverest horticulturists that " the florists, having got hold 

 of the Rose, would in time bring it to the same pass that 

 they had brought other flowers to." I asked, " What was 

 that ? " . He replied, " They will improve (?) them so much 

 that the masses will not be able to grow them." And 

 surely the history of florists' flowers warrants this view. 

 But do not let it be supposed that I wish to depreciate the 

 Rose as a prize winning or florists' flower. It has a right 

 to be such. I simply hold that it has a higher and wider 

 title to popular favour than this, namely, that it is a first- 

 class decorative or garden plant. The florist, with his 

 artificial standard of excellence, after forcing or coaxing a 

 portion of poor plant nature into a mould of his own 

 conceiving, throws cold water on all outside of it. I do 

 not object to the first step ; men might be worse 

 employed ; but I cannot submit to be bound hand and 

 foot within the narrow limits of the florist's view. I hold 

 that there are other and even higher aims to secure, 

 namely, to obtain varieties which grow and bloom freely, 

 and display their flowers to advantage on the tree, and 



