764 
THE GARDENERS’ MAGAZINE. 
October li. 
I THE NATIONAL ROSE SOCIETY, t 
Beginning in quite a small way, the 
Natienal Hose Society has so grown in num¬ 
bers and developed in operation as to 
become the one recognised authority on all 
matters relative to the rose. With in¬ 
creased membership comes increased re¬ 
sponsibility, and the question has arisen— 
Can the society be made still more useful, 
and that, not only to its own members, but 
to all who love and cultivate the rose 
There was a period when the National 
Rose Society confined its attention solely to 
the organising and holding of exhibitions, 
but at the present day its efforts are 
extended to the issuing of publications 
which should be of valuable assistance to 
rosarians throughout the United Kingdom. 
In this respect, as in others, the aim of 
the society is to inform, to instruct, to 
focus, and if this is to be eflftciently carried 
out, the society’s perspective should be as 
broad as its membership, and as wide as 
its title—national in its knowledge, 
national in its helpfulness. Is there here 
room for improvement ? Is there a danger 
lest it should fail to fulfil its aims, and so 
failing, subside into a Southern Counties 
Rose Society .P Let us consider. 
The National Rose Society acts through 
an elected council, from which body stand¬ 
ing committees are formed for the purpose 
of dealirig with specific departmental work, 
and it is obvious that each committee 
should be in full possession of all facts re¬ 
lative to the subject with which it has to 
deal. But consider the composition of the 
council from which committees are formed 
The council meets in the Metropolis, and 
it is essential that its members should be 
more or less regular in their attendance. 
Indeed, a record of individual attendances 
is tabulated, and published at the close of 
the year, preparatory to the next election. 
It is, therefore, evident that residential 
proximity to the iMetropolis is an impor¬ 
tant factor in the composition of the coiifii' 
cil, with the result that a large majori^y^' 
of its members—neai-ly all in fact—reside 
within the Metropolitan area or, at least, 
in the home counties. But the society 
claims to be national. 
To illustrate this point, let us consider 
the official catalogue of roses, in which is 
not only an extensive alphabetical list of 
roses, with a brief description of each 
variety, but also several lists of roses re¬ 
commended for various purposes. It is 
well known that the quality and liAbit of 
a particular rose varies considerably ac¬ 
cording to the locality in which it is cul- 
tivaterl. In support of this we have only 
to look at the many roses emanating from 
Ireland, which, although they were each 
awarded the gold medal when first exhi¬ 
bited, have been discarded as unsatisfac¬ 
tory by growers in England. Some varie¬ 
ties that flourish in Ireland are poor in 
the South of England, and vice versa. The 
writer has visited rose gardens in the 
south as well as the north of Ireland, and 
seen varieties flourishing, and, therefore, 
highly esteemed by their groivers, which 
w’e in England consider hardly third-rate, 
and have ceased to grow. And the same 
may be said of Scotland. 
If the committee which prepares the offi¬ 
cial catalogue is limited to residents in the 
•South of England, can its members have 
a personal knowdedge of the value of a 
particular rose for growers in Scotland and 
Ireland; can they, except from report, 
give adequate advice to growers in these 
districts ? 
Now one is perfectly certain that it is 
the earnest desire of the Publications Com¬ 
mittee to make their publications as 
helpful as possible to all members of the 
N.R.S. in whatever locality they may re¬ 
side. But how can this be accom¬ 
plished ? Surely by ascertaining the views 
of growers as widely dispers^ as the 
membership, so that the catalogue or other 
publication should help, not only the rosa¬ 
rians of England, but also those of Scot¬ 
land and Ireland. In a word, it sliould 
be a national official catalogue. In the 
way that this should be done two methods 
suggest themselves, namely, (1) by the 
appointment of official correspondents or 
(2) by a District Committee having advi¬ 
sory, but not executive, powers. The first 
method, adopted, one believes, in France, 
has this inherent w^eakness—it depends for 
its efficiency in execution upon, the know¬ 
ledge and efforts of an individual. The 
second is free from such weakness; the 
body is summoned, members consult to¬ 
gether, and, after the opinion of the mem- 
loers has been crystallised, the advice seiit 
to the council carries more weight than 
if it came from an individual. 
It may be asked, is there any real need 
for this.^ Well, it has been the privilege 
of the writer for some years to visit rose 
shows in an official capacity both in Scot¬ 
land and Ireland. Here he has seen great 
gatherings of keen rosarians—^one of them 
met this year was a miner from the pit 
showing a twenty-four—and also many 
beautiful varieties that are seldom grown 
now in the South of England. It is sur¬ 
prising, however, to find how few of these 
exhibitors belong to the N.R.S.; how omall 
is the influence of the society. And one 
■ of the causes is this—the publications of 
' the society, especially the catalogue and 
pruning book, do not materially assist 
them, and this question has on more than 
one occasion been put to the writer: 
“ What practical benefit shall I derive by 
joining the N.R.S. ? ” The miner men¬ 
tioned above remarked, “ You in the South 
of England like Florence Pemberton, but 
I have to grow it under a jam jar.” So let 
us try to meet the requirements of all rose 
growers in the United Kingdom. 
A few weeks ago “ conversations ” took 
place—an informal meeting of a few rosa¬ 
rians was held just for interchange of ideas 
on this point. The meeting was com¬ 
posed of two growers from Scotland, two 
from Ireland, together with some Vice- 
Presidents, two southern trade growers, 
and the honoured secretary of the N.R.S., 
Mr. Mawley, and, without going into de¬ 
tails here, we may state that it was agreed 
without one dissentient that the matter was 
worthy of the consideration of the council 
of the N.R.S. The plan suggested was 
tliat Distiict Consultative Committees 
should be appointed for Scotland and Ire¬ 
land, and, if possible, for the North of 
England as well. The Irish and Scottish 
growers mentioned names of those who 
might be willing to serve on their respec¬ 
tive committees. For Ireland, it was 
thought the Irish Rose Society might act; 
in Scotland leading trade and amateur 
growers were prepared to move h- 
they one and all impressed U|)ou ih.. 
mg the desirability of undertakin g . n’ 
thing on the lines iiKlieate<l in 
extend the influence and efficiemv tW 
National Rose Society, and the writo « 
these notes was deput^ to bring th 4 -ak 
before the council. 
Joseph H. Pemhehtojc 
SUCCULENT PLANTS FOR 
AMATEURS. 
(Continued from page GIP.) 
Euphorbias. 
The genus Euphorbia is one ui Xbt 
largest in the vegetable kingdom, aid a 
cluaes a large number of succulem 
Most of these are natives of tropical aw 
sub-tropical Africa, India, Madaga^a: 
Canary Islands, and ^lexica. .Noarlv 
the species in cultivation are African, ut 
thrive in a warm, sunny git.?nhousc. 
contain a virulent 2 misoii in all their part*, 
and on this account are not recomnitixk 
for window culture. They should aliin 
he handled with caution, and any woii 
made by their sharp thorns sJumW W 
immediately washed. Several 
badly-i)oisoned hands and arms have 
under my notice during the pau 
years caused by slight scratches from 
jdaiits. There is, however, no m-cl Us 
alaim, providing the most onlinary ettf 
is taken when handling them, and 1 hiw 
personally handled many hundriNt d 
jilants without any serious injury. TW 
succulent species present a most 
dinary amount of diversity in th»' .di»p» 
and size of the stems, and many are wn 
beautiful and s/jmmetrical. 
Most of the euphorbias passes.^ th<»rn'« 
some kind, the arrangement 
the stems being the means of <iivid:iic tk 
g^^nns into well-marked sections. 
them greatly resemble some “t 
cacti in their general appearamv. ^ 
botanically are widely separated. _ 
tion for all purposes may be nia<ie i 
the following : E. triangularis with 
roundish leading stems, and 
lateral branches. E. canariensis. L- - _ 
and E. heterochroma are dwarf, bu. ; ^ 
cies, w ith foar-angled stems, and 
nica, E. Hermentiana, and E. ^ 
are tall, tree-like species, also with >q 
stems. E. pentagona usually has 
angled stems; E. 
other slpecies, with six-angleil ^ 
those wdth eight-angled stems i 
and include such well-known sp 
ccriiformis. echinus, 
mis, and Beanmeriana. , ipi 
genus have dwarf, gouty, 0 
long or short slender lateral g | 
example of this kind is the « 
Capnt-Medns.^. Many 
lonncl (terete) stems and 3r , d 
vary in size considerably- 
this class should include 
fanalis, Tirncalli, this 
loti. Two old garden plants^- j 
are the well-known ‘ Poiso 
splendens, and its near al v. 
stems of which Both / 
dark brown or black tnor • tr**h*f 
quick-growing specie, a" ^ 
habit, and are usuallr g cl.*** 
balloon-shaped wires, or ne. ^ 
a climber. Their charm 1 es 
nnmhers of bright ^ncrd 
ami flow^ers, which are p 
early spring and gpecics 
of most of the snccnle 
conspicuous, and of no g ^ p R.vff***’ 
/Trk continued.) 
