NATIONAL UOSK (.'OXFKRKNCK. 



289 



flower and really not feel the loss ; and the promised new Rose 

 of 1890 might be content to submit to the inevitable, and be from 

 the outset what she is bound to be in the end, " Dowager 

 Duchess," leaving " Duchess of Marlborough " for some future 

 novelty. I seriously think this question of simplicity and 

 distinctness of nomenclature is a matter Rosarians would do well 

 to lose no time in grappling with. 



Order of Entry. — In the preceding Statistical Returns no 

 weight must be laid on the order in which the individual Roses 

 stand in the different selections, as it was often impossible to tell 

 whether the lists were intended to be read up and down the 

 paper or across it, and in not a few cases the writers purposely 

 disowned all intention of any order of merit. 



Abbreviations. — I must apologise for a great deal of incon- 

 sistency which cannot fail to be remarked in the method adopted 

 in abbreviating the different names of the roses. It is easy to be 

 wise after the event, and had I the work to do over again I would 

 certainly avoid such inconsistency. The task grew gradually 

 as I worked at the Returns, and was not definitely planned 

 beforehand, and at times it has had to be laid aside for weeks 

 together to allow other work to be continued. It must further 

 be remembered that the great object aimed at was brevity, and 

 that the abbreviations are simply used for the purposes of the 

 Statistics, and have no other authority or raison d'etre whatso- 

 ever. W. Wilks. 



SUMMARISED RESULTS OF SOME OF THE 

 STATISTICS. 



By Rev. W. Wilks, Sec. R.H.S. 



Best Twelve H.P.s for SJiow. — Although thoroughgoing 

 Rosarians will, as I remarked in a previous note, revel in the 

 Returns, to a great many humbler Rose-lovers and Rose-growers 

 they will prove somewhat hard reading, and, for such as are 

 content to extract the honey at second hand, I have drawn 

 up the following lists, resulting generally from the Statistical 

 Returns : — 



