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A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



sheets of brown paper, two deep, and cut to fit the 

 box, and upon these place the best moss you can 

 obtain. I get mine from trunks of trees in a neigh- 

 bouring wood ; have it carefully picked over and well 

 watered a day or two before a show ; and then, using 

 the coarser portion for a substratum, make my upper 

 surface as clean and green and level as I can. 



It would, I think, repay the Rosarian to grow moss 

 specially for this purpose, such as would thrive — Sela- 

 ginella denticulata, for example — in rough boxes and 

 waste places under stages or in vineries. Some years 

 ago I placed a lining of zinc, 3 inches deep, at the top 

 of one of my Rose-boxes, filled it with earth, and soon 

 obtained from it a charming surface of S. apoda. The 

 effect of twelve beautiful Roses resting upon this 

 bright-green moss was lovely ; but oh, the weight 

 when we bore them to the show ! no mother in all the 

 world would care to carry such a bulky babe. 



A wee story about moss, and we leave it. I re- 

 member an exhibitor, of whom it was said that he was 

 never known to pay a compliment, or to praise any- 

 thing which did not belong to himself, except upon 

 one occasion. Having won the first prize for Roses, 

 he went in the joy of his heart to his chief rival, and 

 surveying his collection, deliberately and frankly said, 

 ' Well, John, I must acknowledge you certainly beat 

 us — in moss.' As well might some victorious jockey 



