APRIL. 
119 
to answer well; its working is extremely simple and efficacious, and 
the mechanical power is so strong that it can be made to overcome 
almost any amount of weight, and the advantages attending such a 
system are indisputable. The plan only requires to be made known to 
ensure its adoption in every garden where good plant culture is a 
desideratum. It is comparatively inexpensive, and may be readily 
applied not only in new houses but also in old ones. 
The chairman announced that the Fellows elected at this meeting, 
and those who may be elected on the 7th inst., will be at once admitted 
to all privileges upon their payment of the subscription from May 1, 
1857, to May 1, 1858. 
THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 
No. II. 
The florist is a gentle, genial man; for he who loves flowers loves 
peace. Floriculture emollit mores, and a gardener with black eyes is 
scarce. The hands that deck the earth with her jewels, and vest the 
land in glory, are inexpert to spar: they do no hurt to living thing 
except the earwig and the aphis. Even when we do quarrel, we florists, 
(and “ we are the sons of women. Master Page,”) we but fling rose- 
leaves at each other, and wage a battle of bon-bons, as though at a 
Roman carnival. “ Madame Laflfay,” it is true, spoke not long ago in 
the Chronicle of calling in her “ beau sabreur'^ but so good humouredly 
withal, that I think were the dear old lady to produce him, we should 
behold nothing more formidable than a gay young gardener with a 
pruning-knife. At the worst, and if actually swords were drawn, we 
should only contend, I am sure, as combatants upon the stage, 
harmoniously to music, and sup together when the curtain fell, in most 
convivial cheerfulness. And long may the Wars of the Roses thus 
maintain their original character, and continue to be Civil Wars. 
The gentle spirit of the florist feels more earnestly this fond desire 
for peace, should sound or sign of actual warfare startle its accustomed 
calm. Did we not lean in sad surprise upon our spades and listen, 
when, after trumpet-tones, the voice of the herald reached us on the 
wind;—“ Know all men by these presents that the brave Knight of 
Bromley defieth unto mortal strife all men who shall profanely dare to 
maintain that the aged lady of his love is not of all the most beautiful.”* 
And did we not tremble with admiring awe, as we saw the great chief 
of Cheshunt ride boldly forth, the champion of youth and beauty, and 
spur down fast and furious to the fray ? 
To speak in more modern phrase, we Rose growers have been called 
upon to our great astonishment, (Mr. Cobden could scarcely be more 
astonished, were he to receive a challenge from the convalescent Bright 
to fight in a twenty-four foot ring) have been* summoned to attend a 
mill for the championship—a mill in which (to quote the elegant 
* See Gardeners' Chronicle, for November 22, 1856, and subsequent 
correspondence. 
