The Book of the Rose

Abstract

MR. MELLIAR is well known among horticulturists as a successful grower and exhibitor of roses, and his book is what he wished it to be—the rose considered as a flower, with full details for its practical culture for amateurs, from the beginning to the end. Art is his text all through. He has very little to say about the botany of the rose, its geographical distribution, the origin of the numerous races of garden roses as distinguished from their wild progenitors, the fourteen chapters of his book being devoted to such matters as soil, manure, planting, pruning, propagating, and exhibiting. For the cultivator the book covers all the ground, and Mr. Melliar's instructions are as clear, as thorough, and as trustworthy as any budding “Rosarian” could desire. There are already plenty of books about the rose, of which as much as this can be said, but there is still room for Mr. Melliar's. He writes mainly for the amateur grower of roses, and strongly recommends his hobby to the country parsons who are, he says, “all so poor, and likely to be poorer still.” The delights of the rose-grower are only experienced when he himself does all the work entailed in the production of plants from cuttings, buds or seeds, to the exhibition flowers. The genuineness of Mr. Melliar's love for his hobby is seen in the following extract from his book:—

The Book of the Rose.

By the Rev. A. Foster-Melliar, Rector of Sproughton, Suffolk. Pp. 336. 29 illustrations. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1894.)