DECEMBER. 
363 
So with the flowers. Old friendships are strengthened, and new ones 
made. There is Ricaut, looking handsomer than ever; and now 
approved friends, though they only “ came up ” last year, Raglan, 
Mathurin Regnier (we call him “ young Griffiths,” from his likened 
to William) Pelissier, and many others. While in a corner are 
assembled the noviciates, not long released from the maternal thumb- 
pot, and from the warm, genial atmosphere in which they were raised 
from cuttings. From the nurseries of watchful love they have been 
sent out, on their own roots :—sunshine and gentle dews be upon them ! 
Earth, assuredly, hath not a more lovely sight than a garden of 
Roses in July,— 
“ lovelier not the Elysian lawns, 
Where paced the demigods of old, and saw 
The soft white vapours streak the crowned towers 
Built to the sun.” 
“ A goodly sight, a goodly time,” and I was going to add, a peaceful, 
but what have I to do with peace ? Mine it is to chronicle the wars of 
the Roses. A floral Moloch, my council is for open war. Arouse thee, 
then, gardener, “hang out our banner” (of tiffany) on the garden wall; 
hoist up Standard of Marengo, Les Etendards de Sebastopol, et du 
Grand Homme ; to-morrow is the day of our first Rose show; and 
when 
“ the country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll, 
and the third hour of drowsy morning name,” 
you must wake me early, dear knave of spades, and with a pebble 
thrown at my bed-room window, 
“ give dreadful note of preparation.” 
To me this is the crowning joy of Rose culture, the excision and 
arrangement of twenty-four perfect flowers. I dislike the three-truss 
system, as being unnatural, and because Roses ought no more to be 
crowded and crushed than English ladies, who wait admission to the 
Royal presence ; and I contend, furthermore, against “ fifty varieties,” 
because, to make up this number, some inferior blooms must be 
admitted, and these materially detract from the general effect and 
beauty. The florist’s eye is censorious, and quick to apprehend a flaw ; 
just as we read in that pretty story of “ The Athelings,” how that when, 
for economy's sake, the ladies with their own hands had papered their 
morning room, and had so successfully combined the pieces, that but 
one defect was patent, one obstinate refusal to harmonise; they were 
nevertheless most painfully constrained to see that the gaze of every 
visitor fell swift and sure upon it, and wandering only when politeness 
bade, found chiefest comfort there. 
But look at- my Roses, ready to start, like twenty-four Liliputian 
jockeys, in gorgeous jackets of silk and satin, crimson, and gold, and 
pink, and white, and purple, mounted for Queen Mab’s Plate! Would 
any of your readers wdsh to have a correct card and list of the horses ? 
Well, here are the two dozen—winners all of them. From the Hybrid 
Bourbon stables. Coupe d’Hebe and Paul Ricaut; Hybrid China, 
Blairii 2 ; Gallica, Boula de Nanteuil; Hybrid Perpetual, Auguste 
Mie, Baronne Hallez, Caroline de Sansalles, Duchess of Sutherland, 
