282 



CASSELL'S PUPULAE GARDENING. 



made of Boronia megastiqina ; the aromatic fragrance 

 of its singular flowers should cause it to be grown by 

 lovers of odoriferous plants. If a window which ad- 

 mits a goodly quantity of sunlight is available, that 

 would be a very suitable place for a pot of Musk 

 [Mimulus Dmchatus) through the summer months. 

 Fern or Wardian cases should also be accorded a 

 similar position, but slightly screened from the 

 direct rays of the sun duiing its greatest height each 

 day. A bow-window would be an excellent position 

 to choose for one of these cases, guarding, as pre- 

 viously hinted at, against injury from excessive or 

 cold currents of air. This branch of the subject 

 will, however, be treated more in detail in a series 

 of articles upon Window and House Gardening. 



THE EOSE AND ITS CULTUEE. 



By D. T. Fish. 



EOSiJS OJ^" PT^LLS. A^B OF ROSES. 



THE title may savour of tautology, but it is really 

 not so, as the two things are totally distinct. 

 Boses have doubtless found a place on walls from 

 their first introduction, but a wall of Roses is a. novel 

 modern invention, the number of examples of which 

 may yet be coimted on our fingers. To plant a 

 tender Eose on a dwelling-house or wall is a very 

 different matter to clothing a whole wall, fifty, one 

 hundred, or five hundred yards long, with Roses. 

 And this is what we are coming to in the not distant 

 future ; for, commercially, Roses pay better than 

 fruit, and they also yield a richer and more durable 

 revenue of pleasure. 



Some Roses, such as the Daisy or Banksian — 

 which, by the way, are also Roses ^dthout thorns — 

 and some of the more tender Noisettes, such as the 

 Cloth of Gold {alias Chrometella) or La Morgue, 

 have always needed the genial shelter of warm walls 

 to enable them to thrive and bloom in our climate. 

 It would almost seem, too, as if our climate or some 

 of our Roses had changed for the worse. Five-and- 

 twenty years ago the Cloth of Gold, contrasted with 

 the general rarity of Roses, was common. I have 

 seen a plant of it in Suffolk covering the front of a 

 large mansion, which it goldened o'er with a profusion 

 of Roses that could hardly be exceeded by its great 

 successor and superseder, Mai-echal Niel. But now — 

 well, it is nowhere. Not that it is extinct, for it lives, 

 mayhap flowers here and there, but it is hardly ever 

 seen or, indeed, heard of ; and yet this Cloth of Gold 

 in perfection is quite equal to Marechal Niel, which 

 has not only superseded it, but apparently so under- 

 mined its constitution that the Cloth of Gold will 

 hardly live where it used to grow like a weed. 



Since the introduction of Marechal Niel it has 

 become the favourite golden Rose for warm walls. 

 It has, however, faults of its own from which the 

 Cloth of Gold was free. It blooms almost too 

 early for our climate, and is subject to gout in 

 its stems, that ends its career suddenly and pre- 

 maturely. The merits of this Rose are, however, 

 so great, and it flowers so profusely, that it has 

 already become the most popular of all Roses for 

 walls. 



But writiug of Roses on walls rather than walls of 

 Roses, it will be our duty and pleasure to note some 

 of the old favourites. First and foremost among 

 these ranks the Banksian or Daisy Rose, introduced 

 from China by Sir Joseph Banks in 1807. These 

 Daisy Roses have also the merit of being without 

 thorns. They flower in clusters like white and 

 golden Daisies already gathered into posies. The 

 white is fragrant— a sort of half-and-half of Prim- 

 rose and Violet ; the yeUow has little or no odour. 

 Both are great favourites, and bloom freely on a 

 south or west wall. The variety introduced by Mr. 

 Fortune and bearing his name has much larger and 

 pure white flowers, which so far spoils a Banksian 

 Rose. There is also an impro\ ed yellow Banksian, 

 with finer foliage than the common, and a deener- 

 colom'ed, richer yellow bloom. These are, however, 

 seldom seen in gardens, whereas trees of the 

 common white and yellow of enormous size and 

 floriferousness are not uncommon. To flower these 

 Roses freely, a free growth should be encouraged, 

 and they should be pruned sparingly, and that only 

 once a year, about midsummer, so soon as the flowers 

 fade. The whole of the long sprays made after- 

 wards should be left, and these result in wreaths of 

 bloom in tiny clusters from a foot to two yards 

 long, drooping and draping and even hiding the 

 front of a wall. 



The Macartney Rose [Rosea hractcata) was also a 

 great favourite on walls when the old China, the 

 Boursault, and Ayrshire, with a few others, were 

 almost the only competitors. These are still among 

 the most interesting of all Roses, though, considering 

 that they were introduced from China as early as 

 1795, they are far from common. The foliage, wood, 

 and stem are peculiar as well as the flowers, the 

 leaves large and shining ; the stems of at least one 

 being rough, with a sort of suppressed spines as those 

 of a hedgehog, and the flowers pure white, of a pecu- 

 liarly pleasing odour. There is a double variety 

 now, but the single was the most common in the 

 olden times. 



The Musk Rose. — This was one of the first to 

 be introduced into this country, supposed to have 

 been received from Persia or India as early as the 

 year 1596. It was well known to the early poets, as 



