ROSE CATALOGUES — BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
;o.3 
If the work be continued in the present 
size, and at the price now charged, it will be 
the most beautiful, and the cheapest, of all the 
works pictorially illustrating roses. 
ROSE CATALOGUES. 
This subject 'has been frequently under 
notice in a former portion of our work, and 
we have strongly advocated a complete change 
in the arrangements which now prevail. The 
subject appears to have been taken up in the 
Gardener's Chronicle, and is undergoing a 
very fair discussion, in the hands of very com- 
petent writers. One writer advocates an 
entire change in the arrangement of families, 
and proposes a very sweeping reform, reducing 
the present great number of assumed families 
to about half a dozen. Of course, such a 
change as this cannot be popular among 
dealers ; but we are glad to see that one of 
the most extensive, and perhaps most rational 
of the cultivators for sale, admits the necessity 
of an alteration, though not to the extent 
proposed by the Rose Catalogue reformers 
who started the subject. Now, this is just 
what we wish. The attention is called to a 
great evil, and a sweeping remedy is proposed. 
The writer makes out his case against the 
present system very complete ; those who have 
been so long in error admit the existence of 
the evil, and object to some of the proposed 
changes ; giving, however, excellent reasons 
for and against the proposed alterations, and 
suggesting some changes which they admit 
may be beneficially made. Messrs. Curtis & 
Co. have begun reforming, and their catalogue 
is a step in the right direction. These gentle- 
men cultivate the autumnal roses extensively, 
and exhibited at the Birmingham show a 
hundred varieties, including the very best in 
cultivation. They have reduced the number 
of sections, and given only the best in each 
family ; so that it is impossible, almost, to 
select a second-rate rose from the whole cata- 
logue ; while they describe the peculiarities 
which entitle the various families to their 
particular classification. Nobody can doubt 
that many of the divisions into which roses 
were separated, were " frivolous and vexa- 
tious ; " while it is universally admitted that 
they were only slight differences which gave 
them to one family or another, and that the 
distinctions had almost ceased, from the dis- 
tances to which new varieties strayed from 
the parents. We trust that the discussion in 
the Chronicle will lead to a complete re- 
vision of the Rose Catalogues, and that the 
trade will adopt such changes as shall simplify 
the task of selecting, and disperse the mys- 
terious clouds which almost prevented a young 
beginner from seeing his way through one of 
the trade lists. Mr. Rivers should undertake 
this task ; and let the distinctions of each 
family be so plain that a tyro may be able to 
read and understand. 
BRITISH WILL 1 FLOWERS. 
Mi'OSOTIS SUAVEOLENS. 
Myosotis suaveolens, Kitaibel (l'ock Scorpion- 
grass). — Boraginacese. 
This plant has been known to English 
botanists under the names of Myosotis alpes- 
tris, and M. rwpicola. It is a very rare and 
pretty dwarf plant, emulating in the pure 
beauty of its blossoms that common species of 
Myosotis, of much larger growth, which 
abounds by the sides of water courses. The 
latter, 31. palustris, is the true Forget-me-not. 
Myosotis suaveolens is a perennial herb, 
with somewhat creeping root-stems, from 
which rise a profusion of root-leaves, of an 
elliptic form, on long slender stalks. The 
flower-stems grow several from the same root, 
and are from three to six inches high, erect, 
unbranched, clothed with spreading hairs, and 
furnished with alternate oblong lanceolate 
leaves, which are almost sessile. The flow r ers 
appear in terminal racemes, which grow in 
pairs, often with a solitary blossom in the 
axis; they are large, handsome, of a delicate 
clear blue, with a yellow eye, pale pink in the 
bud, fully as large and showy as those of M. 
