256 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
{ October 3, 1878. 
——— ————————————— 
was attacked with the exception of Madresfield Court Muscat, 
and not a vestige of the parasite was found upon it. When 
found to spread so rapidly under the dry treatment the borders 
inside and out were thoroughly watered, and from that time 
the mildew decreased. The third house was filled with Azaleas 
to make their growth. This house was kept very moist and 
the borders thoroughly watered as they required it, and the 
disease has never made its appearance. There is, I think, still 
something to be learned as to the cause and prevention of 
mildew. Will some of your able correspondents give attention 
to this important subject? —-W. BARDNEY, Norris Green. 
TEA AND NOISETTE ROSES. 
No one can deprecate more than the writer the absurdity 
of making Tea and Noisette Roses first favourites at the 
expense of Hybrid Perpetuals. Practically speaking (for exhi- 
bition purposes I mean, of course) this never generally can 
be done. With a vast majority of rosarians, certainly those 
living in the northern parts of England or under the baneful 
shadow of manufacturing districts, scarcely any of the Tea or 
Noisette varieties can be grown, though occasionally they may 
exist: while the amount of success attained is utterly in- 
adequate to the expenditure of trouble expended upon them : 
as our transpontine neighbours would say, Le jeu ne vaut pas la 
chandelle. These I know are truisms, still I could name many 
enthusiasts who year after year will keep on playing this 
losing game, while if they expended a tithe of their labour 
of love on Hybrid Perpetuals they would, in many cases at 
least, not only produce healthy plants and creditable blooms 
wherewith to gladden their eyes at home, but if so minded 
could compete with fair prospect of success at our leading Rose 
shows. 
Mr. Laxton, the skilful raiser of most of our grandest 
English new Roses, is 2 signal case in point of what may be 
done under untoward circumstances. I remember well his 
writing to me, a good many years ago, how he had to bring 
his soil to his roseries by railway in truckloads, while the air of 
the town in or near which he lived was dense with vapour 
from neighbouring manufactories. Now it is a matter of his- 
tory in our Rose annals how Mr. Laxton’s Roses sped. I can 
well remember their exquisite symmetry and colour, and how 
often, in spite of their want of size, their intrinsic merits pro- 
moted them to the highest honours ; but I will venture to say 
no Tea Rose ever found a place in these exhibits grown in the 
open air. 
Now while a low, or smoky, or otherwise chemically affected 
atmosphere is fatal to these delicately framed varieties, their 
value in a light poor soil cannot be too highly insisted upon, 
lavishly repaying the cultivator for any manurial adjuncts ap- 
plied ad lbitum, and this improvingly over a long number of 
years ; whereas Hybrid Perpetuals wouid give but a partial 
and short-lived success through requiring periodical supplies 
of inorganic matter, such as fresh loam, &c., so absolutely 
essential to produce blooms suitable for exhibition. “ WyLD 
SAVAGE,” wise in his generation, endorses the truth of these 
remarks by drawing upon the Teas and Noisettes in his poor 
soil for a goodly proportion of his exhibition blooms, which 
seldom fail to be noticed somewhere in the prize list, though 
of late years, he remarks with a sigh, at the wrong end. But 
while I repeat I deprecate any comparison between Teas and 
Hybrid Perpetuals, it must be confessed that few exhibitors 
would like to exclude the former. Would it not be painful to 
think as to what without Teas must be the result of the Col- 
chester, Salisbury, Cheshunt, and Torquay exhibits? A casket 
there would indeed be of precious stones but without the Rose 
diamonds. It is curious to notice how these and other exhibitors 
have their specialties, wisely no doubt growing most those 
varieties which flourish with them best. In the late annus 
mirabilis for Teas, continued down to this present date, Mr. 
Cant’s exhibit of Boule d’Or will not easily be forgotten (so I 
hear, for I haye never seen this difficult Rose expand yet), or 
his Souvenir d’Elise, a superb Tea Rose which this season 
seems specially to fayour, and which should be in the smallest 
collection. Mr. Curtis also showed on several occasions mag- 
nificently Madame Hippolyte Jamain. Ithink that there never 
was a more exquisite bloom than of this Rose shown by this 
firm at the Alexandra Rose Show, where also Mr. Jowitt among 
amateurs showed a bloom of that uncertain Tea Rose Jean 
Ducher, which for immense size, substance, and colour was a 
perfect gem. 
Mr, Baker seldom exhibits early or late without showing 
that lovely and useful Noisette Madame Caroline Kuster, a 
variety not sufficiently known as its merits deserve, being one 
of the freest-growing and blooming Roses in cultivation ; in- 
deed, if Tea and Noisette Roses as a class came up to this stan- 
dard the vexed question of admitting them in combination 
with Hybrid Perpetuals would ipso facto answer itself. Mr. 
Cranston often exhibits with great effect an old Tea I can con- 
fidently recommend, called David Pradel, a remarkably free 
bloomer, especially in autumn, when its large shell-shaped 
petals vary remarkably as to colour in separate blooms on the 
same plant from deep red red to the faintest pink. But the 
belle of the season perhaps has been an old Rose little known 
to the public except as a pot Rose under glass, Tea Comtesse 
Nadaillac. This excellent Rose seems one of Mr. G. Paul's 
specialties, as his firm several times exhibited fine specimens 
of this effective Rose ; especially grand they were I was told 
at Manchester. Mr. Camm writes about this Rose at the West 
of England Rose Show at Hereford (where, as seen in the 
writer’s stand, he pronounces it the premier bloom of the show), 
“as delicate and generally small.” My experience is entirely 
the reverse. This Tea flourishes with me in surprising vigour ; 
indeed, I have before me now two large finely coloured blooms 
I only wish my friend could see. No collection of Teas, I hold, 
can be complete without this distinct and useful variety. 
Two of the most constant and lovely exhibition Tea Roses 
must by general consent be considered Catherine Mermet and 
Marie Van Houtte. Mr. Baker and Mr. G. Paul showed the 
latter grandly this season, although, perhaps, it would have 
been a shade more in character with a brighter summer. He 
would be a bold man indeed who would venture to ignore the 
claims of these two queens, or decide ex cathedra on their 
rival charms. Why, it would be the old tale over again of 
Paris introducing the-apple of discord! In my humble way I 
am quite content (more especially as both their majesties 
agree admirably in my garden) to say with the country yokel— 
“ How happy could I be with either 
Were t’other dear charmer away.” 
Commend me to the fair Catherine for perfection of maidenly 
symmetry and smooth and glowing yet of unfreckled untanned 
complexion ; but what can surpass the equally fair Marie for 
matronly embonpoint and exquisite gradations of colour—the 
yery faintest primrose coyly capturing the tints of the rosy- 
fingered morn ? “Ss 
T hope, with your permission, to forward a short descriptive 
list of old and new Tea and Noisette Roses which from expe- 
rience I can fully recommend as distinct and useful, in addi- 
tion to those I have already touched upon, which_may have 
some interest with the public, especially as Mr. Hinton finds 
his Hybrid Perpetual exhibition election quite sufficient this 
year. I will conclude with a rather apposite quotation from 
the Laureate’s “ Queen Mary ;” lines which, although referring 
primarily to that “queen of a day” the peerless Lady Jane 
Grey, may, by a fair poetical licence, be transferred to the 
subject of this paper, a perfect Tea Rose—twin bud and 
blossom— 
“ Rose of grace, 
Girl never breathed that equalled such a Rose: 
Rose never grew that rivalled such a bud.” 
—HEREFORDSHIRE INCUMBENT. 
THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 
TuIs place of recreation is deservedly popular with all 
classes resident in London and its vicinity, and also with 
strangers who visit the metropolis from all parts of the world ; 
gardeners, too, when in London on a tour of inspection would 
be well repaid for a day there, as among its many and varied 
attractions not the least important are the extensive and well- 
kept grounds. The site of the Palace was well selected, as a 
better spot for a view of the country around London it is im- 
possible to find. This elevation, although giving good scope 
to the landscape, which has certainly been made the most of, 
militates very much against the efforts of Mr. Thomson the 
skilled Superintendent of the horticultural department, shelter 
being very requisite to many kinds of shrubs and plants neces- 
sarily employed. This being the case it was all the more sur- 
prising to find the beds of Pelargoniums and kindred bedding 
plants looking so bright and well late in September—in fact, as” 
bright as we usually see them in July or August. 
The sight presented to the visitor on arriving at the low- 
level station entrance is very grand indeed. Directly opposite 
is the rosery, an elevated and elaborate structure of trelliswork 
