440 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The growth of the Perpetual Roses is somewhat after the manner of 

 that of the Vine, which one is obliged to prune to render it fruitful and 

 make it produce finer fruit. So is it necessary to prune the Rose in order 

 to obtain fine flowers and a well-shaped bush. An unpruned Rose grows 

 out of shape, sprawls, exhausts itself, and gives much smaller flowers than 

 those it is capable of producing. 



As to pruning, strictly so-called, it is almost impossible to lay down 

 any strict rules, because everything depends on the vigour of growth of 

 the particular object under treatment. 



A very intelligent gardener from Lyons, named Picard, who suggested 

 a particular method for the growing of Roses, thus expresses himself as 

 regards pruning : — 



" I will not discuss the views of those who insist that periodical and 

 regular pruning is indispensable in the cultivation of all plants : for I am 

 not at all of that opinion. The excessive use of pruning has done more 

 harm than good. Considered from a physiological point of view, pruning 

 is an unnatural mutilation, which, guided as it often is only by caprice and 

 lack of knowledge, ends in results harmful to the plant which has under- 

 gone it. And if I prune Roses according to my method, it is not all on 

 account of any organic necessity ; the plant can perfectly well do without 

 it, and, following the nature of its species or variety, will also 

 grow larger and be more beautiful, because it naturally possesses a 

 reserve of growth-power in the parts usually cut off. But as the Rose- 

 tree is destined to live in a restricted space, I am obliged to prune the 

 upper portions of it in order to be able to satisfy the demands of fashion." 



These quotations are enough to show that if pruning gives rise to 

 certain inconveniences, it has nevertheless numerous adherents amongst 

 professionals, which is a certain sign that it possesses more advantages 

 than disadvantages, and that the important point is to know how to 

 practise it correctly and with prudence. 



Since the far-off days when poets sang of the birth of the Rose, 

 several entirely new families of them have been born which would have 

 astonished the flower-loving bards. Roses are no longer the same shrubs 

 about which the poets sang, and a whole new world of them has arisen 

 in consequence of the somewhat adventurous marriage between the Indian 

 and the Gallica Roses. New introductions, of types unknown to the 

 ancients, and until quite recently to moderns also, have arrived to people 

 our gardens. The yellow race with all its crosses, the giants with their 

 hybrids, the dwarfs with their mixed descent, have all given rise to a 

 n» w population which has displaced the ancient race, a people mottled, 

 marbled, heterogeneous, easy to work, flourishing and floriferous. 



It is in this new race that we are most interested, for it is it which 

 baa made pi nning so difficult. But before attacking it, pruning-knife in 

 hand, this would seem to be the place to classify it categorically, in order 

 that no one may ignore the fact that the genus Rosa is not a single entity, 

 but a collection, of many species, races, and individuals which must not 

 be uniformly clipped like a flock of sheep. 



The Hoses of ancient time were not, for the most part, Perpetuals ; some 

 of them blossomed twice a year fairly regularly in some climates, and 

 very irregularly in others. And it was only at the end of the eighteenth 



