80 HORTICULTURE. 



Undoubtedly there is an embarras de richesses^ in the multitude 

 of beautiful varieties that compose the groups and subdivisions of 

 the rose family. So many lovely forms and colors are there, daz- 

 zling the eye, and attracting the senses, that it requires a man or 

 woman of nerve as well as taste, to dSbide and select. Some of the 

 great rose-growers continually try to confuse the poor amateur by 

 their long catalogues, and by their advertisements about " acres of 

 roses." (Mr. Paul, an English nurseryman, published, in June last, 

 that Jie had 70,000 plants in bloom at once !) This is puzzling 

 enough, even to one that has his eyes wide open, and the sorts in 

 full blaze of beauty before them. What, then, must be the quan- 

 dary in which the novice, not yet introduced into the aristocracy of 

 roses, whose knowledge only goes up to a " cabbage-rose," or a 

 " maiden's blush," and who has in his hand a long list of some great 

 collector what, we say, must be his perplexity, when he suddenly 

 finds amidst all the renowned names of old and new world's history, 

 all the aristocrats and republicans, heroes and heroines of past and 

 present times Napoleon, Prince Esterhazy, Tippoo Saib, Semira- 

 mis, Duchess of Sutherland, Princesse Clementine, with occasionally 

 such touches of sentiment from the French rose-growers, as Souve- 

 nir (Tun Ami, or Nid d 1 Amour (nest of love !) &c. &c. In this 

 whirlpool of rank, fashion, and sentiment, the poor novitiate rose- 

 hunter is likely enough to be quite wrecked ; and instead of look- 

 ing out for a perfect rose, it is a thousand to one that he finds him- 

 self confused amid the names of princes, princesses, and lovely 

 duchesses, a vivid picture of whose charms rises to his imagination 

 as he reads the brief words " pale flesh, wax-like, superb," or " large, 

 perfect form, Beautiful," or " pale blush, very pretty ;" so that it is 

 ten to one that Duchesses, not Roses, are all the while at the bottom 

 of his imagination ! 



Now, the only way to help the rose novices out of this difficulty, 

 is for all the initiated to confess their favorites. No doubt it will be a 

 hard task for those who have had butterfly fancies, coquetting first 

 with one family and then with another. But we trust these horti- 

 cultural flirts are rare among the more experienced of our garden- 

 ing readers, persons of sense, who have laid aside such follies, as 

 only becoming to youthful and inexperienced amateurs. 



