This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
Mr. Prince, we see, has in the December number of the Gardener's Monthly begun a series of articles describing the different species of the Paeony, a most interesting group of plants, many of them by no means as well known as they should be.
One acre is devoted exclusively to the cultivation of this showy plant. The paeony, although old-fashioned, is yet a favorite garden and lawn flower, and it is considered a staple nursery plant.
It is the popular belief that there are several hundred varieties of the rose family, and this is in a measure true; but of this large number there are not over ten or twelve sorts prized in the greenhouses. In private gardens it is the ambition of some owners to cultivate all the varieties, and to produce as many new sorts as possible; but for market and decoration purposes the number given above embraces all that are really valuable. Of the white or straw colored roses there are only two kinds which are really valuable - they are the "Safrano" and "Marschal Niel," we believe. The first named is the favorite. Five thousand plants comprise the stock of roses in this nursery, but the number for winter flowering will be propagated almost indefinitely.
 
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