86 THE WILD GARDEN. 
the Riviera is suggestive of what we may obtain in our 
own climate later, by using the free kinds on their own roots, 
or on stocks equally hardy and not less vigorous, as in the 
case of the Banksian Roses mentioned below :— 
On my last excursion from Marseilles to Genoa, I was greatly 
struck, as any one seeing them for the first time would be, with the 
magnificence of the Roses all along the Mediterraneanshores. The™ 
Rose hedges, and the espalier Roses, especially, offer an indescribably 
gorgeous sight. Under the genial influence of the warm sun of Pro- 
vence, from the Corniche to the extremity of the Riviera di Ponente, 
that is as far as the Gulf of Genoa, and protected to the north by the 
mountains, which gradually slope down to the sea-coast, Roses attain 
the size of Ponies, and develop a depth and brilliancy of colour and 
fragrance of unusual intensity. Bnt this is in part due to another 
cause, or rather two other causes, which lead to the same result, the 
main point being the choice of suitable subjects for stocks to graft 
upon. These stocks are, Rosa Banksiz and Rosa indica major. The 
Banksian Rose presents three varieties, namely, White Banksian, pro- 
ducing a profusion of small white flowers, scarcely so large as those of 
the double-flowered Cherry, and of a most delicious fragrance ; Yellow 
Banksian, with still larger clusters of small nankeen-yellow scentless 
flowers ; Chinese Thorny Banksian, flowers less numerous and about 
three times as large as in the two preceding, and of the most grateful 
odour. These three forms attain an unsurpassable vigour in this region. 
In two years one plant will cover an immense wall, the gable of a house, 
or climb to the top of a tall tree, from which its branches hang like 
flowery cascades, embalming the air around with a rich perfume during 
the months of April and May. Now, if these be taken for stocks upon 
which to bud some of the choicer Teas, Noisettes, and Bourbons, the 
growth of the latter will be prodigious. The stock should be two years 
old, having well ripened, though still smooth, wood. In this way such 
varieties as Gloire de Dijon, Maréchal Niel, Lamarque, Safrano, Chroma- 
tella, Aimée Vibert, le Pactole, and all the Teas, attain such dimensions 
as to be no longer recognisable, 
Rosa indica major is almost naturalised throughout the whole of 
this region. It possesses the additional claim to favour of flowering 
nearly all the winter, forming beautiful hedges of dark green shining 
foliage, from which thousands of clusters of lovely flowers rise, of a 
