The object of this book is to convey information. The earlier portion will describe the various processes of cul ture, training, and propagation, both in the open ground and in pots; and this will be followed by an account of the various families and groups of the rose, with descriptions Of the best varieties belonging to each. A descriptive list will be added of all the varieties, both Of Old roses and those most recently introduced, which are held in esteem by the experienced cultivators of the present day. The chapter relating to the classification of roses, their family relations, and the manner in which new races have arisen by combinations of two or more Old ones, was suggested by the difficulties of the writer himself at an early period of his rose studies. The want of such explanations, in previous treatises, has left their readers in a state of lamentable perplexity on a subject which might easily have been made sufficiently clear.