240 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



utmost importance to those who wish to choose their 

 sorts, and have only trade catalogues and the flowers 

 to be seen at shows to go by. For, among Eoses, there 

 are a great many "little ways" belonging to the 

 different tribes, families, and individual varieties, and 

 many an otherwise excellent sort has a nasty habit 

 of doing this, that or the other which just prevents 

 its being as good as it might be. 



A variety may be faulty as a plant, having an un- 

 healthy constitution, weakness of growth, deficiency 

 of foliage, a special tendency to mildew or orange 

 fungus, or a lack of freedom of bloom, or of good 

 qualities in the autumn. And if the plant is all that 

 can be desired, there may be serious demerits in the 

 flowers as a rule, however good an occasional 

 specimen may be. Among such faults may be — a 

 liability to be stained, gummed, or rotted by rain, or 

 to " burn," that is, turn brown, in hot weather, or to 

 come badly shaped, malformed, quartered, or divided, 

 or to have some deficiency in stoutness and smooth- 

 ness of petal, fulness of centre, accuracy of form, or 

 brightness of colour. 



The Teas have a special fault in that some of 

 them will not bring blooms to full perfection when 

 grown as dwarf plants, and they are also peculiarly 

 liable to be injured by rain ; but, on the other hand, 

 they are somewhat less injured by mildew and com- 

 pletely free from orange fungus. Besides these 

 general faults, many Eoses have private habits, 

 either good or bad (generally bad !) of their own. It 

 is most desirable that these should be known, but it 

 should be added that situation, climate, soil, and 

 culture have much effect upon the manners and 

 customs, sometimes to a very striking extent. 



