CHAPTER X. 
THE ROSE GARDEN. 
It is necessary to the completeness of this work that it should 
contain at least one chapter on the cultivation of the rose. 
But it is not necessary that any elaborate disquisition should 
be attempted ; for although the subject invites us to be diffuse, 
and is known to be exhaustless, very much of useful informa¬ 
tion may be conveyed in a few words, and it is part of an 
author’s duty to take quick and comprehensive views of 
things in the preparation of a small volume on a large subject. 
We will first suppose that the reader has a garden of 
some extent, and would gladly institute a feature in the form 
of a rosarium, or compartment devoted exclusively to roses. 
We begin by presenting a plan for the purpose, which may be 
adopted in its integrity, or modified by a little careful mani¬ 
pulation. It must be understood, however, that this is not a 
fancy sketch, that may be altered ad lib ., as a mere design on 
paper; it is a plan of a rosarium that we have ourselves 
formed and planted, and found sufficient for our own enjoy¬ 
ment, and the satisfaction of a few critical friends who are 
known to be half mad on the subject of roses. The plan is 
drawn on a scale of twenty-four feet to one inch, and, if carried 
out on that scale, would require an oblong plot of land mea¬ 
suring about 140 feet in length by 90 to 100 feet in breadth. 
It consists of an oval occupied with grass and roses, enclosed 
with a parallelogram of hornbeam, or clipped yew, or of 
mixed plantation. In the centre is a basin of water fifteen 
feet in diameter: this is enclosed with a low fence of common 
China roses, very carefully trained. A fountain might be 
appropriately introduced here. The walk round the basin 
opens into four main cross walks five feet wide, and four 
secondary walks three feet wide, which communicate with 
the oval walk within the boundary of the trellis, four feet 
