BOOK REVIEWS. 



433 



treat of rose-cultivation. It was written with much care and thought 

 by an enthusiastic amateur who had had a Hfe-long experience in almost 

 every branch of rose-growing. Even his standard briar stocks were 

 obtained from the hedges by his own hands. Indeed, the eight pages he 

 devotes to instructing his readers how this apparently simple operation 

 should be performed may be taken as typical of the whole work; for 

 it clearly shows his practical knowledge of the subject and also the 

 thoroughness of his teaching, no necessary detail being omitted. Ac the 

 same time it is most delightful reading, being interspersed with humorOuS 

 incidents, admirably told, connected with the topic under discussion. 



Mr. Fbster-Melliar had one unfortunate idiosyncrasy. He could see 

 little beauty or use in any rose whose flowers did not approach the exhi- 

 bitor's standard of large size and deep and regularly arranged petals. It 

 is quite true, as the editors of the present edition point out, that in 

 his day there were comparatively few varieties of that now numerous 

 class known as garden " or decorative roses. But there must have 

 been something more than this. His description of that grand old rose, 

 ' Gloire de Dijon,' will perhaps best illustrate his own point of view. 

 After endowing that variety with almost every good quality a climbing 

 rose should possess, he goes on to say that a plant of ' Gloire de 

 Dijon ' may be a hundred times the size of * Comtesse de Nadaillac,' 

 and may have more than a hundred times the number of flowers ; but 

 take the finest ' Gloire de Dijon ' that ever was seen and set it in an 

 exhibition stand by a fair representative flower of the other and the 

 great inferiority in every respect, even in size, would at once be mani- 

 fest." In the description of this rose one can at once see the bias of this 

 fine rosarian in favour of the " autocrats of roses," as he styles the 

 exhibition roses, and yet at the same time his great fairness in stating 

 everything that could possibly be said in its favour. 



The editors of the present edition have carried out their revisions 

 with great judgment. For, while retaining untouched the whole of the 

 original work where it was not absolutely necessary to bring the infor- 

 mation it contained up to date, they have supplied the required 

 particulars about decorative roses, and have also included the best of 

 those roses in a chapter of nearly one hundred pages devoted to the 

 " Manners and Customs " of the choicest " garden " and exhibition 

 roses now in cultivation, bringing abreast of the times one of the most 

 original and attractive features of the book. 



In the frontispiece will be found an excellent portrait of the author, 

 and in the opening pages a most interesting account of his life and 

 character. The numerous illustrations scattered through its pages 

 complete a work which may be regarded as a storehouse of useful 

 information about roses and their cultivation from the facile pen of 

 the best writer on roses of his day. 



" Eoses and Eose Culture." By William Paul. Eleventh Edition, 

 revised. 8vo., 122 pp. (Simpkin, Marshall, London, 1910.) Is. 



This is a cheap arid handy httle rose book^ and contains a good deal 

 of useful information; but irt the next edition it would be well to bring 



