CHAPTER V 



ROSES 

 ' The first o' flowers." 



Bui'NS. 



More has been written of the Rose than of any other 

 flower ; hundreds of books have been devoted ex- 

 clusively to it ; it has figured in poetry and prose, in 

 monograph and essay ; acres of canvas and paper 

 have been covered with its pictorial representations ; 

 every English gardener is supposed to be a wallving 

 encyclopsedia of Rose lore. Rose literature is cheap ; 

 the florists' catalogues, scattered broadcast by the million 

 copies and obtainable free, gratis and for nothing, are 

 veritable mines of information on the subject; hundreds 

 of varieties are figured and described, and their culture 

 explained minutely. There are Rose societies, Rose 

 shows, men who call themselves Rosarians, gardens 

 devoted exclusively to Roses ; in a word, the Rose is 

 paramount. What need, then, to say anything further 

 about it, when clearly there can be nothing further to 

 say.' — thus the average reviewer when a new Rose book 

 is thrust into his hands. At the risk of appearing para- 

 doxical, I make bold to answer, that in spite of the interest 

 taken in them, Roses are among the least understood 

 and appreciated of all flowers ; that we rarely see them 

 properly used ; and that Rose shows have done more 

 than anything to spoil the Rose as a decorative plant. 

 Instead of valuing the Rose as a peerless beautifier of 

 garden scenes, a vast number of people limit its associa- 



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