34 
A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF ROSES. 
no sensible effect upon the juices, the colour of the flowers, or flavour of 
the fruit of the graft. It is true that this has been controverted; 
some cultivators having affirmed that the fruit, produced by scions of 
pears grafted on quince stocks, are more austere than if worked on the 
common seedling pear stock. But this idea wants confirmation, as it 
has never been so far verified as to cause any rule of practice to be 
founded upon it. 
It is quite true, however, that there must be some degree of affinity, 
some measure of congeniality between the stock and graft to insure a 
perfect union: and this seems to depend more on the congenerous qua¬ 
lities of the sap respectively, than on those of the organisation ; because 
we often see stocks and grafts very unequally though intimately united, 
either the stock swelling to twice the size of the graft, or vice versa . 
This not only shows that the sap is connatural, but that the organisation 
of the one is more gross than the other ; and consequently, though both 
grow at the same time, one is more amplified than the other. 
Viewing these observations in connection we arrive at the inference 
with which we set out, that all the various productions of plants, and 
which are extractible therefrom by one means or other, are elaborated 
by the organic structure and vitality of the system. This is a truism 
which scarcely requires a statement; but when we contemplate the 
vegetable kingdom, and consider every plant as a living chemical ma¬ 
chine, by which sugars, oils, resins, gums, &c. &c. are generated and 
embodied, whatever may have been our previous ideas of the wonderful 
forms and powers of plants must be infinitely heightened by this con¬ 
sideration of them. Our purest and most grateful adoration may have 
been constantly offered to that benignant Being who “ giveth us all 
things richly to enjoy;” but how much higher must our conceptions 
be of the incomprehensible and Almighty Creator who hath not only 
willed all vegetation into form, but endowed it with such powers of 
elaboration, as by the combination of a very few precreated fluids , the 
most sanative, nutricious, and useful products are provided for all that 
lives. 
A descriptive Catalogue of Boses, cultivated and sold by 
Messrs. Rivers and Sun , of Sawbridgeworth , Herts , for 1835-6. 
We announced the receipt of this catalogue when it came to hand, 
at which time we had not leisure to look into it; but having now done 
so, we think it but justice to Messrs. Rivers, the spirited cultivators, 
to notice it more in detail. 
The rose is universally esteemed as the queen of flowers, in which the 
most delicate colours and the richest perfume are united. The French 
