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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Reubens, Souvenir d'Elise Vardon, Souvenir d'un Ami, Viscom- 

 tesse Decazes. Well, Low many of these are now to be found 

 in a list of the best roses ? Nevertheless I have grown and 

 exhibited most of them. The advance in new roses has been 

 so rapid that I venture to think the greater number of these 

 varieties are unknown to many rosarians of the present day. 

 Another thing to be noted is that this progression has been more 

 or less confined to one section at a time. At first it was in the 

 direction of Hybrid Perpetuals. Then from 1870 to 1880 the 

 Tea section developed. In 1873 a new race of roses — the 

 Hybrid Tea — was commenced by the introduction of Cheshunt 

 Hybrid. The section, however, made but little progress until 

 the late Mr. Bennett in 1882 and succeeding years brought out 

 Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, Grace Darling, Viscountess Folkestone, 

 and others. This rapid development of Hybrid Teas has led the 

 National Rose Society to classify them as distinct from any 

 other section of the Rose family. 



It is beyond the scope of the present paper to enter into a 

 discussion as to the definition of an Hybrid Tea, or the wisdom 

 of according to them a distinct section. But the consideration of 

 the Hybrid Teas as the third stage in the development of roses, 

 other than summer-flowering roses, leads on to the next point, 

 and a very pertinent one. What are the qualities to be sought 

 for in new roses? In other words, what really constitutes a 

 good rose ? As an exhibitor I might be expected to regard all 

 roses through a pair of exhibition spectacles, and, if so, all I 

 should seek for would be form, colour, and size. But for one 

 exhibitor there are twenty or thirty non-exhibiting rosarians, 

 and these latter require as essential qualities of a good rose that 

 it shall be free-flowering, sweet-smelling, and hardy. These 

 three qualities, together with colour, are to them qualities which 

 constitute a good rose ; form and size are valuable, but inci- 

 dental. On the whole the Hybrid Teas do most fulfil these 

 requirements. Raisers of new roses must bring out roses that 

 will suit the popular taste. We want less of the type of Her 

 Majesty, Marchioness of Dufferin, and Marchioness of London- 

 derry— stiff, scentless, and producing few blooms, although they are 

 handsome when they come- and we want more of the type of La 

 France, Caroline Testout, Grace Darling, and Marquise de Salis- 

 bury, which for sweetness, elegance, profuseness, and hardiness are, 

 i think, unsurpassed. We also want a perpetual Crimson Rambler 



