81 
AUTUMNAL ROSES, 
In our September number, we made some general remarks 
on this lovely and admired genus of flowers, and gave a very 
brief explanation of one of the families of autumnal roses, or 
those which bloom late in the season. Autumnal roses is not 
exactly the proper name for them, as many of them flower as 
early as June, or even earlier; but they have, at least when 
properly managed, two growths in the year, and flower at each; 
and with skilful management, which consists chiefly in thinning 
out a considerable number of the summer buds, the commence¬ 
ment of the last flowering season may be made to coincide with 
the close of the first, and thus they may be kept constantly in 
flower from the earliest blossom, to the setting in of the cold 
weather. This makes them very valuable from the length ol 
time that we can enjoy their colours and their fragrance, the 
former of which is often brilliant and the latter is great. We 
are originally indebted for them to the French cultivators, whose 
climate not being so variable as ours during the flowering sea¬ 
son, is more adapted for the growth of roses. The French 
cultivators have also paid earlier and greater attention to the 
improvement of roses than those of Britain, and though we now 
have many eminent rose growers, in different parts of the 
country, who not only cultivate the earlier varieties with much 
success, but attain fine new ones by cross impregnation, the 
finer roses do not bear seed so well with us as they do in France; 
and therefore we still import very considerable quantities. 
The cause of the inferior seeding of British roses appears to 
be the greater humidity of the climate, and consequently of the 
soil and the greater quantity of rain during the time that they 
are flowering. It is a truth which should be constantly borne 
in mind by every florist, whatever flowering plants he may cul¬ 
tivate, that humidity, especially when in excess, is the grand 
stimulus to the increase of the individual plant, and probably 
also to the extension of the petals, which may be one reason why 
flowers which are single in their natural state, become double 
