XII MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 257 



reputed parentage ; for it is said, though it is 

 generally supposed there must have been some 

 mistake or accident, to be a seedling from the old 

 Tea Canary, a yellow flimsy thing according to 

 modern notions, and Mabel Morrison, a white 

 sport from Baroness Rothschild, which is particularly 

 open and deficient in the centre. If this is so, it 

 should strictly be called a Hybrid Tea. Mr. 

 Bennett was one of the first to practise hydridising 

 in this country, and sent out his new issues as 

 Pedigree Eoses : but one would think that on 

 beholding the illustrious progeny of this apparently 

 ill-assorted pair he must have been inclined to con- 

 sider chance quite as likely to be successful as the 

 careful choosing of seed-parents. 



Horace Vernet (Guillot, 1886). — A typical show 

 Rose : grand in the extreme in every way on the 

 exhibition table, equalled by few, and surpassed by 

 none ; but to be avoided by those who grow Eoses 

 for ordinary garden purposes. The plant is of a 

 weak constitution; and often cannot be kept in 

 health and strength beyond a year or two. Indeed 

 it is in some places useless as a cutback ; no other 

 Eose is more worthy of the annual system of culture 

 — budding anew on fresh strong stocks every year 

 and cutting away the old plants to get the strongest 

 buds — and for none is it more necessary. When 

 thus treated, the growth and foliage are good enough, 

 one would think, to keep the stock roots in health ; 

 but the plant is almost sure to dwindle if preserved, 

 lasting best, I am told, on the seedling briar. Not 

 very liable to mildew or to be injured by rain. The 

 blooms are large and generally come good ; and 

 good they are, with the stoutest of petals which shut 



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