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The Best Varieties with Their

CHARACTERISTICS THE rose has been the Queen of Beauty among flowers as far back as records go. Down the ages she has held her position unchallenged. India, Persia, China, Japan, Greece, Italy, and the rest of Europe all pay her homage in verse and story. The rose is a native of all these countries, and those of the twentieth century are the gradual evolution from the original types to our almost perfect flower. At first this evolution was slow and greatly due to chance. Hybridization was neither understood nor practised.

New roses came from seed, or from some new variety thrown out by an old stock and noticed and propagated. Nature's friend, the bee, did most of the crossing of varieties, but such progress did not suit rose growers, and from the gambling methods of chance seeds systematic hybridization became the order of the day. At once the rose list increased by leaps and bounds, for the field was of extreme fascination and boundless possibilities.

Without going into the history of all the various FIG. 10