214 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
does not heed sufficiently habit and constitution; and lienee the symmetrical 
flower of the exhibition table is often the offspring of a weakly or shabby tree. 
We want good Eoses ; but we want also, for the purpose of general gardening, 
varieties of hardy constitution that will grow and flower well, and live to a 
good old age, without the petting and coaxing wffiich so many of the modern 
varieties require. To choose Eoses, unless exhibiting is the main object in 
view, one should see them in their rural homes, where the act of “ getting 
up” is seldom practised, and pretty faces count only at their proper worth 
—should see them when newly opened by the breath of morn, and while 
still wet with the dews of heaven. Freshness is the crowning beauty, the 
indescribable and irresistible charm of the Queen of flowers, and this freshness 
is wanting in nine-tenths of the flowers met with on the exhibition tables. 
But there is more in the matter than this. The practised rosarian may 
gather from a solitary bloom, or a trio of blooms, whether the plant is of 
hardy or delicate constitution, whether the bearing is handsome or awkward, 
whether the flowers are generally or only occasionally fine, and the many 
other little points important though often overlooked in the hasty generalisa¬ 
tions of this busy age, and which go to make up a good Eose—the practised 
rosarian, I say, may arrive pretty accurately at these facts from cut speci¬ 
mens, but woe be to the unpractised who decides and acts on such evidence. 
Daily experience confirms the opinion long entertained by the writer, that 
they who want Eoses to decorate their gardens should choose from growing- 
plants rather than from cut flowers. Acting on these views I lately, when 
visiting the Eose gardens in France, made notes of the best garden Eoses, 
and these I have corrected by comparison with the collection growing here 
under my own eye. 
First, I would observe that the amateur who wishes for a fine display of 
Eoses in June and July, will lose much if he exclude from his list certain 
varieties of summer Eoses. Among the Moss Eoses there are:—Comtesse 
de Murinais (white), Gloire de Mousseuses (blush), Marie de Blois (lilac), 
the old-fashioned Moss and the Crested Moss (pink), Baron de Wassenaer 
(red), and Captain Ingram and Purpurea rubra (purple), all free, hardy, 
profuse, and beautiful. Of Damask Eoses Madame Hardy and Madame 
Soetmans are still unsurpassed as white flowers, although rarely met with at 
the exhibitions. The varieties Felicite and La Seduisante compel us to 
retain the group Alba; these are improved varieties of the Maiden’s Blush, 
and, although there are now Hybrid Perpetuals of similar character, they 
are so delicate as to be short-lived and scarcely manageable. Neither are 
the old French Eoses to be hastily ignored, for in (Fillet Parfait and Perle 
des Panaches we have the two best striped Eoses (white striped with crimson 
and rose), that have yet appeared. Again, where effect is valued, where 
masses of bloom are desired, there are none comparable to the old Hybrid 
Chinas Charles Lawson, Chenedole, Coupe d’Hebe, Juno, Madame Plantier, 
Paul Perras, and Paul Eicaut. Nor must we forget to include Harrisonii 
(Austrian), a plant of matchless beauty when covered with its golden globes 
in May and June. Net how few of these ever put in an appearance at the 
Eose shows ! If our new Hybrid Perpetuals produced the masses of bloom 
in summer which the above-mentioned kinds do, and continued to bloom 
constantly throughout the autumn, it would be well to take them in pre¬ 
ference. But this is not the fact. Cultivators know well that the majority 
of these Hybrid Perpetuals produce fewer flowers in summer, and scarcely 
an equivalent in the later flowers. The difference is, perhaps, hardly 
appreciable in the sum total of flowers. It is this : The summer Eoses pay 
