1868 . ] 
NEW ROSES. 
3 
growth, throwing up suckers at all seasons, and ripening their fruit in about 
ten months from the rising of the sucker, Thus a continuous crop of 
fruit is produced, justifying the foregoing quotation from Yoight. 
Little care is bestowed on their cultivation by the natives of the plains 
of India, beyond selecting a sheltered open space for the plantation. They 
almost invariably, however, plant a group as near to their cottages as con¬ 
venient, and as the soil of the plains is more or less alluvial, they are there 
found in great perfection and luxuriance. The Dwarf Banana ( Musa chi- 
nensis, Sweet.; Cavendishii, Paxt.), w T as sent to the Botanic Garden at Cal¬ 
cutta by the late Duke of Devonshire, with a collection of economic plants 
in my charge, in 1837, since which time it has been extensively cultivated 
in the East Indies, on account of the excellence of its fruit, and its dwarf 
habit, which render it a most valuable sort for general cultivation, as it 
sustains less injury than the tall varieties'of Musa paradisaica, from the 
periodical gales which occur at the change of the monsoon. 
It appears that twelve species of Musa, natives of the East Indies, were 
known to Yoight in 1845, and since that time several species, not enume¬ 
rated in his work, have been introduced to this country, amongst which 
M. Ensete, a native of Abyssinia, is most conspicuous. This may indeed be 
regarded as the most magnificent Musad known, possessing the habit and 
character of Roxburgh’s M. superb a, a native of Dindygul. It only requires 
the temperature of the conservatory, and is capable of bearing exposure 
to the open air in summer, where it grows most luxuriantly, forming, in 
my opinion, the most striking and magnificent object imaginable as a 
foliage plant. In my enumeration of the species of Musa adapted for open- 
air decoration it will occupy the first place ; but I must first offer a few 
remarks on the genera Strelitzia and Raven ala. 
Battersea Park. J. Gibson. 
NEW ROSES. 
-j£pYEW Roses may, perhaps, be considered an appropriate subject for dis- 
jgJLj) cussion at this particular season of the year; but I would not raise 
tefe© the expectations of my readers too high by the assumption of this 
VYp title, and therefore say at once that I do not intend to venture on 
prophecies, but to deal with facts. After many years’ experience I 
have concluded not to deliver a final judgment on a new Rose until I have 
seen it grow and blossom in my own hands. This, as will be seen, places 
beyond my present pale the Roses first sold in the autumn of 1867, because 
they have bloomed in France only. Although I have been through all the 
French Rose grounds recently, and have seen most of their novelties, I 
would as soon venture to name the horse that should win the Derby of 
