NOVEMBER. 243 



peat, and thoroughly decomposed cow-dung, in about equal 

 portions, adding a sufficient quantity of sharp silver-sand, to 

 insure the free percolation of water through the mass, to suit 

 well. The loam and peat need not be broken up into very 

 small pieces ; but the dung should be passed through a fine 

 sieve, to catch the worms which it contains. Of the beautiful 

 G. zebrina we ought to state that there are two varieties in 

 cultivation ; one having thin ill-coloured leaves, and in every 

 way much inferior to the other ; therefore beginners should 

 take care not to purchase the worthless variety, which, how- 

 ever, is not very common. 



STOCKS FOR ROSES. 



The floricultural world will doubtless remember a rather warm dis- 

 cussion which, a few years since, caused no small amount of inkshed, 

 and produced a few lively skirmishes, amounting almost to a state of 

 actual war. An eminent cultivator, whose character and position 

 combine to render him a high authority, having received from abroad 

 a new Rose called Manetti, conceived the idea that it would form a 

 better stock than the wild brier for many, if not all the numerous 

 families into which the queen of flowers has been (somewhat arbi- 

 trarily, in my poor judgment,) divided and sub-divided. Having first 

 tested its properties, he propagated it extensively, and in due time 

 offered it to the public, speaking of it, generally, in terms of un- 

 qualified praise. It is perhaps only natural that a parent's eye 

 should discern more readily the good than the bad qualities of a 

 favourite child, and we may therefore afford to make some little 

 allowance on this head. Nevertheless, Master Manetti, coming be- 

 fore the world with such a character, so endorsed, experienced no 

 difficulty in finding numerous friends. But there are two sides to 

 every question, and two opinions concerning every thing in this 

 world, be it good, bad, or indifferent. And so it turned out, that 

 before the stripling became, as it were, firmly established, he found 

 his path a little more thorny than it had appeared at first sight. To 

 drop metaphor, the Manetti stock, so highly recommended by one 

 authority, was disparaged and condemned, in no measured terms, by 

 others, whose pretensions to form a judgment in the matter were in- 

 disputable. Thus stood the case. A says, " I have a new stock for 

 Roses to submit to your notice, good public. I have tested it, and 

 find it to possess certain excellent qualities. I therefore strongly 

 recommend it as deserving your notice." B and C exclaim, " Pause 

 awhile, dear public, before you commit yourself too decidedly to this 

 vaunted stock of A's. Be assured it is a mere crotchet, a delusion, 

 an ignis fatuus, that will only lead you astray." 



" Who shall decide, when doctors disagree? 1 ' 



