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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I presented two to myself, my dear old Yorkshire gardener said 

 he thought I should have gone right up, like Ganymede, you 

 know, whom Jupiter snatched from earth in order that he might 

 be his cup-bearer in Olympus. From that time rose shows 

 became an institution, and the greatest result that came from 

 them as regards us rosarians was the institution of the National 

 Rose Society, mainly by the efforts of our friend Mr. D'Ombrain. 

 That Society has done its work, as I think, with consummate 

 wisdom and zeal, and has had the arrangement of rose shows 

 in England, north and south, east and west. It has done more 

 than this — it has published an excellent catalogue of roses fit 

 for exhibition, and in later days, a selection of roses which "are 

 best for general enjoyment in the garden. That supplement was 

 to me most welcome, because there prevailed an idea amongst 

 florists that we rosarians only cared for obese blooms ; but the 

 reality is this, and you will testify to the truth of what I am 

 saying, that it is impossible to love one rose really and not love 

 them all ; and I do not think any man deserves the name of 

 gardener who does not see something to admire in every flower 

 that grows. And now I have been obliged to be very egotistical, 

 because it has all been historical ; and I may state, not without 

 some little vanity, that from that single rose on that summer's 

 evening, hundreds of additional acres have been planted with 

 roses, and that little spark has lighted ten thousand fires. It 

 remains for us old rosarians to do all we can for our younger 

 brethren, to tell them all we know about soil and situation, 

 enrichment and cultivation, and to put before them the pros and 

 cons, the losses and gains of exhibiting roses. One hardly knows 

 what advice to give to the neophyte as to which line he should 

 take. I think if I began again from the beginning to be a 

 rosarian, I should like to have a sort of amphitheatre of roses, 

 slopes of roses, cataracts of roses— like those of Ayrshire, which 

 came down from the house of Mr. Rivers — arcades of roses* 

 arches of roses, avenues of roses. I should like to have every 

 rose that grows, and it is delightful to see to-day almost every 

 rose that is known in this exhibition, which has been so elabo- 

 rately arranged and so well supplied. At the same time, if I 

 were going round this beautiful garden a few days before the 

 show, and saw what a young sporting friend of mine, who is a 

 rosarian also, described the other day as the " ripping twenty- 



