brilliant crimson flowers are often striped with white: these two last-mentioned varieties are finer grown as standards than in any other mode, as their flowers are large and pendulous. Titus is a remarkably pretty purple rose, blooming in large clusters. Its flowers are not large, but finely shaped and very distinct. Victor Hugo, one of the finest of the lilaccoloured roses, deserves a place in every collection. It produces flowers of the very largest size, globular, and finely shaped. This is a very erect growing rose, and may be cultivated either as a standard or a dwarf. Velours Episcopal is a new and beautiful variety, perfectly globular, of a fine crimson purple, inclining to the latter colour. Wellington is now an old rose: for some time thought to be the same as Bizarre de la Chine, but now found to be quite different in its habit and growth, though its flowers have an exact resemblance. As with French roses the new varieties of this family are too numerous for detailed descriptions, but Saint Ursule, Comtesse de Lacepede, and Adalila ought not to be passed over; they are all of the most perfect shape and delicate tints. As rose-coloured roses, Duc de Cazes, Charles Duval, and Richlieu, are quite perfection in the form of their flowers, ́and for vivid rose-coloured varieties, Lord John Russel, General Allord, Louis Fries, and above all Charles Louis cannot be too much recommended; they are all truly beautiful. The preceding are hybrid Bourbon roses, and it is remarkable that hybrids of that family are nearly always first-rate; their habits are also generally pleasing, as they are of compact growth and fine foliage. Potart, Decandolle, Triptoleme, Colonel Combes, and Larochefoucault are vivid red roses of great beauty. With but few exceptions hybrid China roses may be cultivated as standards to advantage, as their growth is luxuriant and umbrageous, some of the most robust-growing varieties forming immense heads. To keep them in a healthy state, lay round their stems, on the surface of the soil, in winter, a good proportion of manure; and mind that before the blooming season commences this is added to, as they require the surface of the soil moist when in flower: they will also continue much longer in bloom if this is attended to. The great objection to this summer surface-manuring, with English gardeners, is its unsightly appearance, particularly round trees on well-dressed lawns: this may be soon obviated, by covering the manure with some green moss; and to keep the birds from disturbing it, which they will do after worms, place on the moss some pieces of rock, or flints, thus forming an ornamental E mound. In France roses are cultivated with much and well-rewarded care; for even standards of thirty years growth have, every spring, a large quantity of manure laid on the surface round their stems. This keeps the extreme heat of the sun from penetrating to their roots; and as they are abundantly watered in hot weather, it also prevents that rapid evaporation which would otherwise take place, so often rendering watering useless. This practice is, after all, only imitating nature, for the Dog Rose, upon which all the fine varieties are grafted, grows naturally in woods and shady places; consequently, it is impatient of exposure in hot, dry soils and situations. For rose beds on lawns the roses of this division are finely adapted, as they form such a mass of foliage and flowers. They may also be formed into a regular bank, rising gradually from the edge, by having dwarfs of different heights, and "petites tiges," or dwarf standards, in the back ground. They bloom remarkably fine on these little stems, and as the stem is protected from the sun by the branches of the plant, it increases in thickness much faster than when taller; tall stems, owing to exposure, are apt to become bark-bound and unhealthy, increasing but slowly in girth, and often requiring support. To have hybrid China roses in perfection as pillar roses, they require attention, and a superabundance of manure; but they will amply repay it, for a column twelve to twenty feet high, covered with such roses as Brennus, Blairii, Belle Parabère, Coccinea superba, Fulgens, Fimbriata, General Lamarque, George the Fourth, King of Roses, Petit Pierre, or Triomphe d'Angers, &c. &c., would be one of the finest garden ornaments it is possible to conceive. To make these varieties grow with the necessary luxuriance each plant should have a circle, three or four feet in diameter, to itself; and if the soil is poor it should be dug out two feet in depth, and filled up with rotten manure and loam. This compost must be laid considerably (say two feet) above the surface of the surrounding soil, so as to allow for settling: in shallow or wet soils they will grow the better for being on a permanent mound. Plant a single plant in the centre of this mound, or, if you wish for a variegated pillar, plant two plants in the same hole, the one a pale coloured or white, the other a dark variety: cover the surface with manure, and replenish this as soon as it is drawn in by the worms or washed in by the rains. Water with liquid manure in dry weather, and probably you will have shoots eight to ten feet in length the first season. I scarcely know whether to recommend grafted roses on short stems for this purpose, or plants on their own roots; this will in a great measure depend upon the soil, and perhaps it will be as well to try both. Most roses acquire additional vigour by being worked on the Dog Rose, but some of the robust varieties of this family grow with equal luxuriance when on their own roots; finally, for dry and sandy soils I am inclined to recommend the latter. I shall now proceed to give a list of those roses from which, in combination with others, choice seedlings may be raised. Aurora, a most beautiful purple rose, often striped with white, may be made a seed-bearing rose of much interest; if self-coloured roses are desired it should be planted with Athelin, which has abundance of pollen; if striped and variegated roses, the Village Maid rose may be planted with it. The Duke of Devonshire, in a very warm and dry soil, will produce heps in tolerable abundance; and as it is inclined to be striped, it would possibly form a beautiful combination with the French rose Tricolor, which should be planted with it. Souvenir d'une Mère, a very large and most beautiful rose, will bear seed if fertilised; the best union for this rose would perhaps be Celine, which is one of the most abundant seedbearing roses we possess: very large and brilliant rose-coloured varieties would probably be originated from these roses in combination, |