DECEMBER. 
365 
the morning, full of water with the night’s dew, which is always 
heavy in proportion to the excessive heat of the preceding day. 
Thirdly. The Day before the National. 
Wh^n you have to carry several boxes of roses, or say twenty- 
four trebles (which roses ought properly to be placed separate, in 
triangles, the two biggest at the top and the smallest at the bot¬ 
tom), you should settle in your mind how you mean to place them, 
with a view to a horizontal and also perpendicular contrast ; in 
order to do this quickly, the best way is to write down the names 
of the roses on paper as they should stand contrasted in the box. 
You should then write the cards, and place each card in Zoco, and 
then go and cut the roses and put them at once in their places. 
When weather is humid or doubtful you will, perhaps, have to cut 
much earlier. Supposing you have trebles to make up, you must 
cut them and put them into wine bottles filled with water, and 
standing as if they were trebles in the box. You can thus if you 
please rehearse location without too much handling. In deciduous 
weather you had better label the roses, as many of the rose- 
coloured ones will otherwise soon confuse you. If the weather is 
hot and dry, a dairy is a good place to keep them in. If the 
weather is dry, but cloudy, place them in the bottles under a shady 
tree, with a sheet over their heads. If the weather is hot and 
misty (the elements of maturity and also of dissolution), you will 
be much tried. The best place then is a room with a fire in it, 
and the door and window left open to let the heated damp escape. 
There is no wind (provided you keep a wet sheet over your box) 
so good 'to travel roses in as north or east v/ind. I never wait, 
like Mr. Micawber in the Fleet Prison, to see ‘‘ what good thing 
will turn up,” and therefore, when the weather is unsettled, or 
likely to be so, to secure the adequate number, I cut at once, even 
two days before, availing myself also of Mr. Micawber’s ‘‘future 
prospects.” The public, who see and admire our roses, little know 
what difficulties we have in producing twenty-four trebles (the 
combination of the horse-shoe and nails) in good condition and 
well contrasted, in critical weather. Before I finally locate these 
frail creatures (they are well called madames I) I lift the bloom 
high over my head, switch it with considerable violence to my 
knees. If it stands that it will assuredly travel and go through 
the show-day. You must always take a surplusage; and if the 
■weather is hot and misty, you must not depend upon fully ex¬ 
panded blooms, but take also with you some roses just beginning 
to expand, and at your journey’s end they will probably be your 
best and brightest roses. The cover of your box should not be 
painted, as paint greatly attracts heat. In all cases you should 
liave a wet cloth over it. Your expanded roses should be put as 
near the engine (or the centre of the train) as you can get them, 
and your uuexpanded ones as near the tail of the train as you can, 
as the vibration and oscillation, which are greater there than else¬ 
where, will probably cause them to expand, and these will be your 
best roses. I won both the first prizes at Reading by taking a 
