The Church and Roses have had a kind of ecclesiastical combination, suggesting the idea that to discourse on Roses you must needs be in the current of apostolical succession.

The oracles that speak to us are clergymen, and their office is an earnest of their veracity. One is a typal "fine old English gentleman," a large grower of the flower, of great practical experience, good taste, honest independent judgement, sterling worth, and is a writer whose criticisms one loves to read.

Another is a genuine lover of the "queen of flowers;" his "Floreat Regina Florum: is the very outcome of the ardent chivalry with which he engages in his sovereign's service; a conscientious and upright judge, and a kind of floricultural "Dickens" in his literary relations. He has the skill and enthusiasm that makes up a successful grower in so far as antagonistic conditions of soil and climate permit him to be so, but lacks the energy that makes a constant and leading exhibitor.

A thrid speaks oftenest by his writings; he is a standard authority, but his conclusions are not implicitly received. He grows well, and somewhat largely, but never ranks high as an exhibitor when he appears in that character. The film of prejudice obscures the clear vision of the critic; he would be what he has failed to become-- a censor whose judgement shall be a centre, towards which a healthy confidence must inevitably gravitate.

To climb up the "hill difficulty", and to reach the "pleasant arbour," and to sit down on the judgment seat by the side of this trio, needs something of the pluck and courage that braced up the nerves of old John Bunyan's pilgrim. I am content with a foothold lower down the steep ascent; and there I venture to give forth my adventurous word, as the candid expression of a phase of floricultural belief.

A visit to Waltham Cross, early in the past month, gave me an opportunity to review conclusions that were already shaping themselves into opinions. what these opinions became to me I now venture to put forth into sober prose.

My attention centered mainly on the new Roses of 1863, and I transcribe the following notes I made on my tour of inspection: -- I commence with H.P. Murillo, a dark carmine flower, of a splendid shade of colour, but has the defect of insuffiecient substance. H.P. Baron Adolphe de Rothschild is one of the best coloured of the new varieties, beautiful bright carmine, free blooming, and of vigorous habit.

This was a very fine flower. H.P. Vainqueur de Goliath is a dark crimson Rose, shaded iwht purple, and, like the foregoing, is of vigorous habit.

I have seen some glorious examples of this flower in the Rose-stands this season. Bourbon Louise Margottin is a lovely rosy peach-coloured flower, fair sized, well formed, and of good substance.

Mr. Keynes had twelve blooms of this at the rose show at South Kensington, and beautiful they were.

H.P. Le Rhone, a fine globular flower; colour scarlety maroon; considered by some to be of good shape, but to my mind rather too much flattened in the centre. H.P. Souvenir de Charles Montault, fiery crimson, shaded with bluish dark crimson; a very showy and effective flower, and free blooming.

H.P. william Paul is a fine dark crimson medium flower, hardy habit, and blooming very freely. Tea Triomphe de Guillot fils, salmon and pink, shaded; a very large full flower, quite distinct, and very fragrant.

"This crowning beauty breathes upon the face,
Up through the fine pores of the scented flowers."

Tea Alba Rosa is a creamy white variety, and a first-class flower. where conditions are favourable this Rose will be a deserved favourite, and always a welcome guest.

I do not profess to exhaust the list of the Roses of 1863: I have simply dwelt on some that I saw in good condition.

Some of the 1862 varieties were also remarkably fine. Let me instance H.P. Madame Jules Daran, dark rose, a fine full flower, of good form.

H.P. Turenne, crimson, a large and full flower; the plant of vigorous habit.

H.P. Paul Feval, a large and full flower, nicely cupped. H.P. Lady Emily Peel, milky white, petals smooth and of great substance; a beautiful Rose, very hardy, and of free growth; a valuable addition to the white Hybrid Perpetuals.

H.P. Jean Gougon, rosy purple, a large full flower; quite distinct. H.P. Triomphe de Caen, crimson purple shaded, colour intensely bright and beautiful; a good full Rose, and a "telling" exhibition flower. H.P. Prince Camille de rohan, violet maroon, a very striking and handsome colour; the flower is not so double as could be wished, yet it has a distincness of colour that gives it a marked individality.

H.P. Professor Koch, crimson; a globular large full Rose, of good hardy habit, flowering abundantly. H.P. Madame Freeman, pure white, good, fair size and full; a remarkably free-growing and blooming Rose. This is another good addition to the white Hybrid Perpetuals.

H.P. Madame William Paul is crimson and purple shaded; it is a large a nd full flower, of good shape; and H.P. Madame Charles wood, crimson; petals large, and face of the flower smooth; a flower of first-rate properites.

I have deferred any notice of Mr. Paul's new roses of this year, in order that it should form the last paragraph of my chapter. H.P. Beauty of Waltham is of a beautiful shade of coulour, a kind of cherry-coloured bright rosy carmine, the flowers being well cupped, full, and large. It is one of the best abused flowers of the season.

H.P. Lord Macaulay is a magnificent flower, as I saw it here. It is in colour a glowing crimson, and very frequently has a shading of plum colour; a thick and full flower, and very free blooming.

H.P. Lord Herbert is a rosy carmine flower, of large size and full substance; occasionally it comes remarkably fine. H.P. Princess of Wales I conceive to be a flower of extra-fine quality, in colour a vivid crimson; think petals large, and very double. The plant is free and vigorous, and hardy of constitution.

H.P. Red Rover is a grand pillar rose; it is of a striing colour, and flowers remarkably free. where a mass of bloom is required this rose should be obtained to secure it. It is also a continous, as well as an abundant, flower-bearer.

Among several Roses that are well adapted for bedding and massing, H.P. Anna Alexieff is one of the best. In colour it is pink, and literally heaps upon itself loads of bloom. Admiral Nelson and Souvenir de Mons. Rousseau, shades of crimson, are only a little inferior to it. the first-named gave forth its masses of pink flowers --

"Drinking in the drowsy music of the bee" --

with unaccustomed prodigality.

I thank Mr. Paul for such a treat as I here enjoyed. In the stillness of the summer evening, standing amid these forms of material beauty, I could not but acknowledge the power of their silent expression of the Divine goodness that implanted in them the capacity to calm, in a human soul, the restlessness of

"That fierce tide that steals
Through the city's long and sinous veins"--

linking the heart to emotions too fine in their conception to be demonstrated. These kindled emotions are a protest against the selfishness of soul that sees, in such types of beauty, only an objective significance, that has no correlation to an inward correspondence.

"O, God! how barren were thy gift of life
Devoid of flowers, with nought but weeds of strife."

QUO.

August, Florist and Pomologist, 1864