226 Notices suggested hy a Tour in France, 



Among the seedling roses in this garden were some most 

 curious hybrids between iZosa or L6we« ier^mfcMia and other 

 roses : they had not yet bloomed, but really looked very inter- 

 esting, owing to their peculiar habit. A custom in France 

 among I'ose-growers gives rise to many (to us) very uninterest- 

 ing names. An amateur who raises roses from seed is regularly 

 besieged by his lady friends to name one after them. He there- 

 fore keeps a book in which applications are duly registered, 

 and this is only deviated from under very peculiar circumstances; 

 hence we have Madame Desprez, Madame Hardy, &c. I often 

 think that some of the fair applicants have not been in high 

 favour when I find very bad roses honoured with their names, 

 which are soon consigned to oblivion. On the contrary, if you 

 find a cultivator names one after his wife, it is generally a very 

 fine flower, as is the case with those above mentioned. I think 

 this is generally a very safe criterion for judging of the goodness 

 of the flower merely by the name ; for, if the unfortunate grower 

 has a termagant wife, I am quite sure (from the active part 

 French women take in business) that she would not allow her 

 name to be attached to a bad rose ; and, if an affectionate part- 

 ner, his feelings will prompt him to honour her name with a 

 fine flower. 



The Yellow Hose in Italy. — I remember, in one of your 

 early Magazines, a correspondent enquiring the name of a yel- 

 low rose that blooms and grows freely in Italy. I received a 

 letter from a friend at Como, a short time since, in which he 

 says that nothing can be more superb than the yellow roses in 

 that neighbourhood. At Genoa, Florence, and other places, 

 there are also large trees of i?6sa sulphurea (the common 

 double yellow rose) covered with their brilliant yellow flowers, 

 hanging like golden balls from the branches, in shape like our 

 cabbage roses, and perfectly formed. How much it is to be 

 regretted that our climate will not allow us to grow this rose in 

 such perfection ! I also ascertained from my friend in Italy 

 the curious fact, that the yellow and copper Austrian roses (i^osa 

 liatea and var.), though both growing wild in the mountains near 

 Como, never bear a single seed-vessel. 



The Vitry Nurseries. — At Vitry, near Paris, is one of the 

 largest communities of pepinieristes, or nurserymen, perhaps, in 

 the world. A friend (also a nurseryman) with whom I took 

 breakfast {a La Frangaise) of mutton chops, eggs, peaches, 

 grapes, wine, brandy, and coffee, served up with true country 

 abundance and hospitality, amused me much with his descrip- 

 tion of the village, in which he said 100 nurserymen resided. 

 On a little eminence in the road, I should think 400 or 500 

 acres of nursery grounds could be embraced in one view, all 

 vmenclosed, and varying from a slip of ground of half an acre, 



