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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and fills us with the hope of greater and better things. But the 

 hope is delusive and melts away. The next year and the next 

 bring with them the usual crop of the usual types — here and there 

 a Rose of admirable quality, but formed on the old models, drawn 

 on the old lines, and no one of them of such marked merit that 

 by anything like a general consent it can be pronounced superior 

 to the acquisitions of the past. 



If this be a true description of the general quality of our annual 

 crop of novelties, have we any right to console ourselves with the 

 idea that we have achieved increased strength of growth or con- 

 stitution — increased durability — greater immunity from mildew 

 or other parasites — a more redundant flowering capacity, or what 

 the learned in Rose-culture seem to despise, but what the world 

 at large, and some lovers of the Rose (of whom I confess myself 

 one) set a high value upon — I mean fragrance ? I fear not. 



On the contrary, I can speak from a recollection of many 

 years, and I think those who cultivated Roses five-and-thirty 

 years ago will admit with me that standard Rose Trees — and it 

 was almost entirely standards that were then in vogue — were 

 far more durable then than they are said to be now. One often 

 hears now of Rose Trees lasting only three or four years, and the 

 loss of them within five years is regarded as not an unusual 

 or unnatural thing. This certainly was not the case at the time 

 to which I have referred. 



Then as to autumn flowering — it is the fashion now to put 

 on one side all Roses that cannot call themselves "perpetuals" — 

 and fashion in this, as in all things in which its voice is heard at 

 all, is supreme. But what is this vaunted property of a second 

 blooming really worth ? 



How many " Hybrid Perpetuals " are there which, in an 

 average year and under average circumstances of culture, can 

 be relied upon to produce — well, say, half-a-dozen healthy 

 blooms in the course of the autumu ? Then as to fragrance. I 

 cannot call to mind any rose of modern date (if we except " La 

 France ") that can equal the old Cabbage Rose or surpass many 

 of the old summer-flowering varieties ; while, on the other hand, 

 there are plenty of new Roses now, and public favourites too, 

 at the head of which I should place the " Baroness Roth- 

 schild,'' which, however beautiful, are absolutely without any 

 scent whatever. Indeed, so little is scent now regarded, that 



