that "in planting the ground should be deeply trenched, and well-rotted manure be plentifully added. If the soil be old garden-soil, add good loam, rich and yellow; choose a dry day for the operation, and leave the surface loose. Stake all standards, and mulch with litter, to protect the roots from frost." Well does this young champion sustain the ancient honours of his house, having achieved no less than forty-four first prizes at our principal exhibitions in the summer of 1868.

Mr William Paul, in his interesting work, The RoseGarden, gives, in the introduction, the results of his experiments with manure. "In the summer of 1842," he writes, "six beds of Tea-scented Roses were manured with the following substances: I, bone-dust; 2, burnt earth; 3, nitrate of soda; 4, guano; 5, pigeon-dung; 6, stable manure, thoroughly decomposed. The soil in which they grew was an alluvial loam. The guano produced the earliest visible effects, causing a vigorous growth, which continued till late in the season; the foliage was large and of the darkest green, but the flowers on this bed were not very abundant. The shoots did not ripen well, and were consequently much injured by frost during the succeeding winter. The bed manured with burnt earth next forced

itself into notice; the plants kept up a steadier rate of growth, producing an abundance of clear, well-formed blossoms; the wood ripened well, and sustained little or no injury from the winter's frost. The results attendant on the use of the other manures were not remarkable; they had acted as gentle stimulants, the nitrate of soda and bones least visibly so, although they were applied in the quantities usually recommended by the vendors.

I think burned and charred earth the best manure that can be applied to wet or adhesive soils."

Mr Turner of Slough does not show his cards, but when he comes to play them on the green cloth or baize of the exhibition-table, no man deals more fairly, knows the game more thoroughly, holds more trumps, or scores the honours more frequently.

Messrs Wood of Maresfield, perhaps the largest growers of the Rose in the world, commend a mixture of wellseasoned animal manure, with the top - spit of an old pasture, deep trenching, thorough draining, and a free use of the pruning-knife the first year after planting.

Concluding this long chapter, I would earnestly assure the novice in Rose-growing that there is only one exception (and that in Egypt) to the rule, "Ex nihilo nihil fit." If he

really means to make the Rose his hobby, and to enjoy the ride, he must feed him liberally and regularly with old oats and beans. The Rose cannot be grown in its glory without frequent and rich manure; and again I recommend that the best farmyard dung be dug in towards the end of November, if the ground is dry, and that the surfacedressing prescribed by Mr Rivers, or another slighter supply of farmyard manure, be administered in May or June. The latter should remain on the surface. The offence which they may cause to the eyes and nostrils of the Rosist will be more than recompensed to him by the brighter beauty and by the sweeter perfume of the Rose. And if neighbours, who are not true lovers of the Rose, expostulate, and condemn the waste, quote for their edification those true words of Victor Hugo in Les Miserables, "the beautiful is as useful as the useful, perhaps more so."

We have found our situation, we have prepared our soils : we will speak next of the arrangement of the Rosary, and then of the Rose itself.

CHAPTER VII.

ARRANGEMENT.

EVERY gardener must be an infidel—I am, and I glory in the fact on the subject of infidelity. The proofs and the precepts of natural and revealed religion are brought so frequently and impressively before him, that he cannot believe in unbelief. He takes a seed, a bulb, a cutting (who made them?); he places them in the soil which is most congenial (who made it?); the seed germinates, the bulb spindles, the cutting strikes; he tends and waters (but who sends the former and the latter rain ?); and the flower comes forth in glory. Does he say, with the proud Assyrian, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom"? Does he not stand the rather, with a reverent wonder, to consider the Lilies (the Auratum, it may be, the glowing Amaryllid, or the lovely Eucharis, in robes pure and white as a martyr's), until the very soul

within him rises heavenward, and Manus Tuæ fecerunt is his psalm of praise?

And the truths of Revelation, the histories and the prophecies of the Older Testament, the miracles and parables of the New, are taught as constantly and as clearly to the gardener in his daily life. In our gardens always

"There is a book, who runs may read,

Which heavenly truth imparts; "

ever reminding us of that Eden wherein were all things pleasant to the eye and good for food; of Gethsemane, and of that garden where our crucified Lord was laid. What is our love of flowers, our calm happiness in our gardens, but a dim recollection of our first home in Paradise, and a yearning for the Land of Promise! Here in the wilderness we love to reclaim these green spots from the brier and thorn; to fence and to cleanse; to plant and sow; to sit at eventide, when work is done, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, with thankfulness and hope.

With hope, because these our gardens-scenes though they be of brightest beauty to our eyes, and sources of our purest joys-do not satisfy, are not meant to satisfy, our heart's desire. Perishable as we ourselves, for the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, they are, moreover, like all our