THE CULTIVATION OF ALPINE PLANTS. 



299 



no doubt that the access of air to plants was most necessary, 

 but his objection to covering the plants was that the appearance 

 of the rockery was more or less disfigured by doing so. He had 

 never found any difficulty in growing Ilaberlea rhodojpensis, and 

 in fact he had about thirty bunches of it at that very time 

 in bloom in his garden. 



In reference to some remarks from Mr. Milne-Redhead, 

 the lecturer said he did not desire to speak disparagingly of 

 the Saxifrages — at least not all of them. The best proof of 

 this would be given by seeing the number of them he cultivated in 

 his rockery. What he objected to growing, however, were such 

 "moss " Saxifrages as S. hypnoides, and S. ccespitosa, and with 

 these he classed Sedum acre, S. rupestrc, and S. spurium, as 

 being of little use or ornament. 



TEA-SCENTED ROSES. 

 By Mr. T. W. Girdlestone, M.A., F.L.S., F.R.H.S. 



[Read June 23, 1891.] 



The Tea- scented Roses are in many ways the most wonderful of 

 all Roses, and it might have been thought that they would have 

 been grown by everyone, everywhere that Roses can be made to 

 thrive. Yet, as a matter of fact, their cultivation is nothing like 

 universal, and has only in quite recent years become even 

 general. Hardly more than ten, and certainly less than fifteen, 

 years ago very few " Teas " were grown out-of-doors, and this 

 although Tea- scented Roses are no recent invention — several of 

 the most beautiful varieties having been distributed at an early 

 date ; for instance, Niphetos (perhaps, with the exception of 

 Marechal Niel, the best known of all Teas) was sent out by 

 Bougere in 1844, Souvenir d'un Ami by Belot-Defougere in 1846, 

 Madame Bravy by Guillot in 1848, and Souvenir d'Elise Vardon 

 (the Tea that so often wins the medal as the best in the show) 

 by Marest in 1854 — a quartet of Teas all still ranking among 

 the twelve best varieties — not to mention Madame Willermoz 

 (Lacharme, 1845), Devoniensis (Foster, 1838), and, earliest of 

 all, the appropriately named Adam (Adam, 1833). It was not, 

 therefore, from any lack of varieties worth growing that the 



