XII MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 239 



red, scarlet, and crimson are my strongholds, and 

 in the following catalogue I shall mostly use the 

 descriptions of colour to be found in the trade-lists, 

 the best of which are carefully compiled from a long 

 and widespread knowledge of the various sorts, and 

 a study and comparison of the different shades. My 

 endeavour will be to supplement these descriptions 

 with other matters that the purchaser and chooser 

 would like to know as an addition to and commentary 

 upon published catalogues. 



For instance, the novice student of these seductive 

 pamphlets will only require a little knowledge of 

 human nature to enable him to take a fair discount 

 off the description given by the raiser himself of any 

 one sort : and he will find it advantageous to be 

 acquainted with some slight vagaries in catalogue- 

 English which custom has sanctioned. In this 

 language " medium-sized " means " small," and 

 "pretty" generally implies the same. In growth, 

 "moderate" means "weakly," "free" describes a 

 plant which is rather weakly but branching, and 

 " vigorous " stands for ordinary growth. "A good 

 pot Eose " might very likely mean that it would not 

 stand any bad weather out of doors, a " nearly full " 

 one mean shows an eye, and we should probably be 

 doing no injustice in supposing that a Rose which is 

 " good when caught right " is bad as a rule. 



It has become a matter pretty generally known 

 how unwise it is for a beginner to select his sorts from 

 those blooms which take his fancy at an exhibition : 

 and there are drawbacks to the cultivation of a good 

 many of the show varieties, which we cannot expect 

 to find noted in catalogues for sale. These demerits 

 and bad habits of certain Eoses I want to point out 

 as well as their good qualities, as they are of the 



