260 
THE FLORIST. 
REMARKS ON 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH ROSE CATALOGUES. 
For some few years I have been a great lover of Roses, more par¬ 
ticularly those which bloom in the autumn; and although not an 
old Rose-grower, I am inclined to think that I know something of 
their habits. I have made frequent visits to the Rose-nurseries of 
France, which, although far inferior to those of England in extent, 
yet derive interest from the number of new varieties annually raised 
from seed. The greater part of these new Roses,— being judged 
only by the raiser and his friends, and not submitted to public 
censorship, as is now the case with most of our new flowers in 
England,— have but little merit: there are this season some few 
new Autumnal Roses, but none of very striking qualities. Dr. Arnal, 
a red Rose, not very brilliant, is pretty; and Joan of Arc, flesh- 
colour, is the same. Leonora, something like the Rose de Neuilly, 
and Madame Pepin, are simply pretty Roses : there is no novelty in 
colour; nothing striking, like those fine Roses Geant des Batailles 
and Comte de Montalivet. The great fault, however, with the 
French Rose-growers is, their minute division of some families of 
Roses into groups, so that it is really difficult to know where to 
find them in their Catalogues. Monsieur Vibert, one of the oldest 
Rose-growers in France, has carried this to the greatest extent; his 
divisions of Summer Roses are too tedious to follow; they amount to 
twenty-two.* But what I wish most to call the attention of Rose- 
growers to is, the (I think) unnecessary dividing of Autumnal Roses. 
Monsieur Vibert has— 
PERPETUALS. First Division. 
„ Second Division 
The first includes the Roses known in England as Perpetual Da¬ 
mask Roses,— a name appropriate enough; the second includes 
Roses which he professes to have raised from a very old autumnal 
blooming Rose, called Belle de Trianon; their names are as follows: 
Antigone, Adele Mauze, Amandine, Amanda Patenotte, Blanche 
Vibert, Comte de Derby, Crillon, Delphine Gay, Due de Devonshire, 
Jasine Hariet, L^one de Leroy, Lesbie, Louise Bordillon, Niobd, 
Olivier de Serres, Petite Marie, Psyche, Sapho, Sidonie, Trianon 
Double, and Yolande d’Aragon. 
These are priced in the Catalogue of M. Vibert from five to 
twenty-five francs each, and yet I firmly believe that, with the excep¬ 
tion of Sidonie, there is not one really fine Rose among them. This 
ought to caution us against taking seedling Roses at the rate of their 
value by the raiser. Following the Catalogue, I find our Hybrid Per- 
petuals all in one group, as “ Hybrides incertaines remontantes,’* 
* Mr. Paul, in his “ Rose-Garden,” I believe, makes nearly forty groups or 
divisions. 
