342 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



should we follow the partridge or the fox too wildly — there the Brier 

 is the stock for the Rose. I know that, despite the dictum of iEsop, 

 our soil has been no injusta noverca to that foreign Hose, which took 

 the name of Manetti from him who raised it from seed, and which was 

 sent to Mr Rivers, more than thirty years since, by Signor Crivelli, 

 from Como. I know that the Italian refugee is acclimatised, and that 

 in hundreds of our gardens he is a welcome and honoured guest. I 

 know that the Manetti will grow luxuriantly where the Brier will not 

 grow at all ; that in a toward season it will produce some varieties of 

 the Rose in perfection ; that in many cases it causes a larger quantity 

 of wood and bloom ; and that it seems to be more enduring than the 

 Brier, because the Brier being used as a standard, is more exposed to 

 hardships, and because the Rose being budded beneath the soil on 

 the Manetti, establishes itself in most cases upon roots of its own. I 

 know, in fine, that the importation of this stock has been a very gra- 

 cious boon to those who love the Rose ; but I am equally sure that 

 nine-tenths of the most perfect Roses lohich have been grown and shown 

 have been cut from the British Brier. I have proved this not only 

 from my own experience, having grown the two stocks side by side, 

 in a variety of seasons and soils, but also from inspection and inquiry. 

 Latterly I have made a point of asking at our exhibitions the paren- 

 tage of Roses which have been admired the most, and the answers 

 have been, ninety per cent of them, as I foreknew they would be, " The 

 Brier." In Dorsetshire, last summer, two of our best Rosarians (if they 

 read these lines, a brother's love to them) " discoursed as they sat on 

 the green," and when they had discoursed, it was written by one of 

 them (see the 'Journal of Horticulture' for August 13, 1868), "For 

 general use the Brier is doomed ; ... it is time to think seriously of 

 discarding it." But then he adds, and I pray you to mark the reserva- 

 tion, " Exhibitors will not do so, I believe, for the maiden blooms from 

 a Brier are suj^erior to those from the Manetti.'^ But no earnest lover 

 of the Rose will be satisfied with inferior blooms, having the hope of 

 better ; and it should have been stated, accordingly, not that the Brier 

 is doomed for general use, but only with regard to those unhappy 

 localities where it cannot be grown. 



If your lot is cast therein, my amateur (but do not think so 

 without a trial), you may grow Roses for your own delectation in pots 

 on their own roots, and on the Manetti, but I do not urge you to com- 

 pete. If the Brier flourishes in your district, order 500. 



Here, I know, the young aspirant will protest, because I have often 

 heard him, "Does this fellow desire to ruin me, or has he got an idea 

 that I am Lord Overstone 1 " And I reply with dignity, " No, my 

 friend j I invite you, on the contrary, to buy a glorious garden of Roses 



