winter. They are indeed fine roses for beds and clumps, and Mr. Rivers says, and with no exaggeration, of their excellence, "Every gentleman's garden ought to have a bed of Crimson Perpetual roses, to furnish bouquets during August, September, and October; their fragrance is so delightful, their colour so rich, and their form so perfect." Crimson Superb, also known as Mogador, is one of the finest of this fine group. The flowers are brilliant crimson, shaded with purple. This grows with great vigour on the Manetti, but not freely on the brier; it is also a good rose on its own roots. Crimson Perpetual, or Rose du Roi, is a superb crimson rose, very fragrant, and a true perpetual. Bernard, one of its sports, is a perfect gem, the flowers smaller than the average, and their colour a delicate pink tinged with salmon, and very fragrant. This is a dwarf grower, and does best on Manetti, or its own roots. Julie de Krudner has pale blush flowers, rather small, very pretty, and very sweet. Madame Thélier is of medium size, the colour pink, and the habit of the plant delicate, but not tender. Laurence de Montmorency, deep rosy-pink, tinted with lilac, cupped, very double, and every way good, though less of a Damask than any of the group. Manoury is large and handsome, the colour deep rose with purplish-slate tint, the habit robust and very free to bloom. Celina Dubois, a blush white, is a capital rose for a clump, the flowers being abundant and lasting, and very sweet.

This is a sport from Crimson Perpetual. All these do well on Manetti or their own roots, and all except Crimson Superb make nice standards on the brier. They all require a rich soil, and to be annually refreshed with good manure; and in dry seasons they need liberal watering during the summer, in order to bloom finely in the autumn. They require to be rather closely pruned. They are quite hardy, and do tolerably well in the vicinity of towns.

17. HYBRID PERPETUAL ROSES.

F. Rosier hybride Remontante.-This group is the rosarian's stronghold. Whatever his peculiar predilections for Teas, Damasks, or what else, he must grow these in quantity, and rely principally upon them for display, as he must also for all the various purposes to which roses are applied in garden and conservatory decoration. Here are the best roses for bleak hills, smoky towns, and soils of questionable character. Here are also the best for training to pillars and trellises, for growing in pots, for forming rich masses in the flower garden, for forcing, and for exhibition. Though the most popular, because the most useful of all, the Hybrid Perpetuals are but of recent creation, the first really noted variety, Princesse Hélène, dating back to 1837; and, as remarked by Mr. Paul in his "Rose Garden," there were not many beyond a score entered in the catalogues in 1840. At the present day there are

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not less than a thousand named varieties of this section, and of these probably one-half would be worth cultivating, though of course among so many there would be a large number too nearly alike to be really needed for a fair representation of the group. It would be much more easy, however, to select the most characteristic members of this family than to define its typical characters, for though the term Hybrid Perpetual" conveys to the mind of the experienced rosarian some very distinct ideas, there is perhaps not a single variety in the series that could be justly selected as a type of the whole. All the families that have been concerned in the production of this class appear variously amongst them by their most distinctive features. Some Hybrid Perpetuals exhibit the characters of the hybrid Chinese more strongly than any others; some show their affinities with the Bourbons; others with the perpetual Damasks; and in very many we have a foliage strongly resembling one section, and flowers which bear a likeness to another. They are in fact, generally speaking, not the results of first or second crosses, but of an infinity of seminal removes from specific or strikingly characteristic types; and their excellent qualities are in plain truth the result of "artificial selection," and the most remarkable triumph anywhere and anyhow effected in the amalgamation of breeds and races.

The group being large, and presenting many

relationships, there have been many attempts made to classify them according to their affinities-all I think in vain, for no sooner is the classification determined on than we find it impossible to refer the most important roses to their proper places in it, so completely in some cases have the family relationships been extinguished or merged in characteristics common only to the subjects it is desired to classify. I think Mr. W. Paul has only laid the foundation for a series of contentions-whenever rosarians shall think it worth while to contend-in the classification of these roses in his "Rose Garden." He casts them in three groups, according as he finds them more or less related to Chinese and Damask, Bourbon Perpetuals, and Rose de Rosomène. I think I shall much better consult the interests of the rosarian if I enumerate a few of the most distinct and useful varieties in their several colours and qualities, without reference to their real or supposed origin, for this is really traceable in very few cases indeed. WHITE.-There are no really superb whites in this group. The best for many years past was Dr. Henon, which is a nice rose at times, but usually grows weakly, and is shy of blooming. Louise Darzins, recently introduced, has quite superseded Dr. Henon, and yet is not equal in quality to many of the coloured roses. It is a moderate grower, and produces small, neatly-formed, thoroughly double, pure white flowers. Princesse Imperiale Clotilde is a

most beautiful glossy white, a good grower, and blooms freely. Mademoiselle Bonnaire is a white which has occasionally a rose tint; it is truly a fine rose, and, when well grown, large and full. Joan of Arc is a charming variety, white, with a delicate rose centre, and finely formed. Imperatrice Eugenie is almost a blush; it may be described as a white tinted with rose; it is really good. Virginal is pure white, but rather thin, and the plant weak in growth and shy to bloom.

LIGHT ROSE AND BLUSH.-Here we find several of the most exquisitely formed and proportioned of any roses known. Madame Vidot is as near perfection in form as it is possible to conceive, the colour a delicate transparent rosy-flesh. Madame Rivers, clear flesh, is a charming flower, large and full, and as regular as if modelled by machinery. Madame Knorr, when full grown, scarcely admits of description, so exquisitely is it folded in the bud; a matchless rose when half-blown. Queen of Denmark, Mademoiselle Eugenie Verdier, Alex. Belfroy, Caroline de Sansal, and Paul's Queen Victoria, are all gems in their way.

ROSE AND CHERRY COLOURS.-Among the rosecoloured varieties, Jules Margottin, a descendant of Brennus, is the finest rose we possess for refined beauty, vigour of growth, and abundant bloom. Comtesse Cecile de Chabrillant, bright carmine-rose, elegantly cupped, is a charming flower when well