SHBUBBY AXD SUB- SHRUBBY ILOWEES. 143 



The above-mentioned (and there are none better) are quite 

 worthless as exhibition, and nearly so as bouquet flowers. 

 Hybrids from the Sweet Briars, whose flowers have 

 any pretensions as roses, have their leaves nearly or 

 quite scentless, and would not be suspected to come of 

 odoriferous parentage. The Double Marginated Sip 

 (there is a single one) has an abundance of small, tole- 

 rably double, creamy-white flowers edged with pink. 

 Riego, light carmine, large and double, has all the air of 

 a Hybrid China. Mr. Rivers advises to re-cross this with 

 the Splendid Briar, in the laudable endeavour to produce 

 seed from which large and very fragrant double roses 

 might be obtained, partaking largely of the characters of 

 the true Sweet Briar in other respects. It is only by 

 these repeated attempts and approximations to a given 

 model that floricultural perfection can be attained. On 

 gazing at a lovely flower, or tasting an exquisite fruit, 

 few persons dream of the patient years and skilful com- 

 binations it has cost. The wild Sweet Briar is not to be 

 recommended as a stock to bud on. 



Hybrid Roses, from and between the Provence, the 

 French, the Damask, the Bourbon, the China, the 

 Xoisette, and others, have hitherto furnished the staple 

 materials of our Horticultural Shows and our professed 

 Rosaries. The climate of the Continent is better adapted 

 than our own for the fertilization and ripening of hips ; 

 and from thence the majority of new roses come ; but 

 still, those processes are not only possible, but many fine 

 varieties have originated here. One curious fact thus 

 demonstrated is, that in crosses between summer and 

 ever-flowering or autumnal roses, the progeny is almost 

 always a summer rose only, losing its power of con- 

 tinuing in bloom during autumn. To obtain a hybrid 

 perpetual rose, you must cross between two perpetual 

 parents. Professed and long-experienced raisers of new 

 varieties from seed have discovered other very curious 

 facts and practical rules. Mr. Rivers instructs us that 

 " when it is desirable the qualities of a favourite rose 

 should preponderate, the petals of the flower to be 



