460 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



r June 11, 1874. 



spur higher up, was larger than the former, conical and regular 

 in shape, washed and mottled with lively red, and with a 

 violet bloom in some parts, a third only remaining yellow. 

 UnliUe the other fruit, this has no perfume. The variety on 

 which this dimorphism has shown itself is Menagere, and the 

 conical coloured fruit bears a strong resemblance to Emperor 

 Alexander." 



APONOGETON DISTACHYON. 

 This is one of the best hardy aquatic plants I know. A 

 plant of it received from Messrs. Veitch about a year ago, and 

 planted in about a foot of water, became established quickly, 

 producing both its deep green foliage and curious white flowers 

 abundantly, and it has done so continuously ever since. Cer- 

 tainly in winter it would often not have more than one or two 

 flowers fully expanded at the same time ; but it never was 

 without buds or flowers, and once or twice when the flowers 

 were destroyed by frost they were quickly replaced by others. 

 The foliage does not appear to suffer at aU from the effects of 

 frost, continuing in a green and flourishing condition through- 

 out the winter. It is this singular property which to my mind 

 renders the plant so valuable, very few other aquatics par- 

 taking of its evergreen character, or producing much display 

 till summer. Thus, while the Aponogetou has been in full 

 beauty throughout the spring, such plants as Sagittaria, Stra- 

 tiotes, Butomus, Villarsia, and Nymphaea as yet afford us 

 nothing but foliage. — E. L. 



NEW BOOK. 



Tlie Amateur's Rose Book. By Shirley Hibberd. 



SECOND notice. 



In continuing our remarks on this work, we would draw at- 

 tention next to the chapter devoted to propagation by cuttings, 

 layers, grafts, or budding. 



The easiest of aU ways, Mr. Hibberd observes, to get young 

 plants of dwarf Roses is to take advantage of suckers ; but 

 there are not many Roses which throw out suckers unless some 

 artificial means are used to induce them to do so ; but when 

 plants have originally been worked on the Mauetti stock, fresh 

 Rose plants may be obtained by planting the Roses deeply, 

 burying the whole of the stock, and, in cases where Roses do 

 not root freely, cutting a slight nick or notch in the Rose just 

 below the ground line. There are illustrations in aid of this 

 explanation in page 46. On page 47 he says, " Unthrifty 

 standards may be made to yield own-root Roses by laying 

 them down so that the base of every good shoot may be 

 covered with earth. In resorting to this practice it will be 

 well for the amateur to bear in mind that the Briar will 

 probably die, and therefore, if the shoots do not make roots 

 of their own, they must die also. To make the more sure of 

 .success it is advised to cut notches or tongues in the shoots, 

 and cover with meUow sandy soil." 



With regard to this suggested plan of obtaining own-root 

 Roses from unsightly standards, we are inclined to think it is 

 hardly worth the trouble of trying it. No doubt in some cases 

 it might succeed, but as a general rule a standard of that class 

 had better be at once discarded. 



The next plan recommended, that of pegging-down or layer- 

 ing branches from dwarfs, is often a very effective way ; care, 

 however, must be taken not to break the branches near to the 

 junction with the parent stem, or, as is often the case without 

 proper precautions, to tear them out altogether. Many of the 

 Teas and Chinas that have long pliant wood may be propagated 

 easily in this way. 



After describing layering iu pots, and also striking by ch-- 

 cumposition, where a potful of soil is hung in the tree with a 

 branch passed through the hole iu the pot, he calls attention 

 next to the plan of striking from cuttings, and then from eyes 

 ur wood buds. This is one of the best ways of securing good 

 plants and economising all the wood of a rare sort, but at the 

 same time it requires care and attention, and perhaps we 

 might add more knowledge of the ordinary wants of plants than 

 the usual amateur possesses. We wOl give a quotation from 

 his own words, which will be of interest to many Rose-growers. 



" The next practice wiU be to make one leaf and one point 

 suffice with an inch of wood attached, and this is easily done, 

 and ought to be done to prepare the practitioner for a skilful 

 handling of eyes, which make better plants than cuttings, and 

 in fact the best plants that can be had ; they have the vigour 

 oi seedlings, with the advantage of being true to the several 



kinds from which the buds were taken. Once more cut from' 

 the tree a nice stout rod of this year. If the buds are pushing, 

 good ; but if pushed they will not do. In other words, if you 

 see the buds, and they look as if they meant to grow this 

 season, you are safe ; if they have already begun to grow, and 

 have perhaps pushed to the extent of the sixteenth of an inch, 

 reject them, for you will probably fail in all your efforts to 

 persuade them to make roots. Having your nice, plump, green 

 rod half ripe, yet in a condition to peel easily ; in fact, just 

 such a rod as you would cut if you were intending to bud 

 Briars, you are in a fair way to proceed safely. Instead of pre- 

 paring cuttings, take out each bud with its leaf by a crescent- 

 shaped cut. This, in fact, is the same as if cut for budding 

 Briars ; but the wood is not to be removed, so you escape all 

 the ' niggling ' that is the stumbling-block of nine out of ten 

 amateur rosarians. Have your pans and glasses ready ; the 

 pans with a layer of peat or leaf mould at the bottom, and 

 at least IJ inch of silver sand at the top. Plant the bud with 

 the leaf upright, keep it moist and shaded, and in due time it 

 wiU throw out roots from the edges of the bark all round, and 

 then the leaf wOl fall, and the bud will start and grow." 



We may as well remark after this quotation, as it would 

 take up too much of our space to continue to transcribe from 

 the book the rest of Mr. Hibberd's notes on this head, that 

 the chief secret of success depends on the buds being kept 

 plump without being too wet or too dry. If the leaves damp- 

 oft' and turn black too soon, then there is too much moisture ; 

 and if, on the other hand, the leaves dry up and shrivel too 

 soon the buds too wOl suffer. The leaves should be kept 

 damp and close, but the sand not too wet, and the temperature 

 should be that of a mild hotbed, though in summer a cold 

 frame in a shaded situation will do. 



After describing the method of striking from autumn and 

 spring cuttings, our author next turns in the following chapter 

 to the methods of propagation by means of buds and grafts. 

 So much has been said lately about budding and grafting that 

 we need not do more than say that the descriptions given are 

 very lucid, and that anyone with a little practice might suc- 

 ceed in budding from the instructions given, though we must 

 warn amateurs that a little practical experience, under the 

 superintendence of a practical operator, is far more efficacious 

 than any verbal description of mere manual routine ; and 

 though it may to all appearance be an easy thing to bud Roses, 

 yet it is not so easy as it looks. Many a bud is spoilt from 

 the wood being badly extracted, or the bark torn, or the bark 

 not properly tied, etc. 



A good deal of the chapter on budding is devoted to a de- 

 scription of the stocks, and nurserymen would do well to study 

 what is said with regard to the roots of the Briar, so many of 

 the stocks being cut out of the hedgerows, and tied together 

 like what a Yorkshireman would call a bundle of "gib" sticks, 

 without apparently any respect for that important adjunct, the 

 roots : hence it is that so many die in the nursery rows ; and 

 so many again cannot bear the transplanting from the nursery 

 to the garden. Much has been said lately about the value of 

 the seedling Briar, and no doubt one of the great advantages 

 of using seedling Briars is that a nurseryman has full com- 

 mand of the roots from the very first, and if he choose to take 

 the trouble and wait for a little time he can also train the 

 plants into standards with clean straight stems, and if this 

 were carried out many of the disadvantages with regard to 

 Briar stocks would be done away with. But Rose-growers 

 should always bear in mind that Dog Roses, and therefore 

 Briar stocks, require strong soil, that the ordinary run of 

 garden soils are too light ; and that whatever may be the 

 value of the seedling Briar, dwarf Roses on the Manetti 

 stock will eventually supersede all other kinds of Roses, as, 

 indeed, they are now fast doing. We do not wish to infer 

 from this that those who have strong soOs and are fond of ex- 

 hibiting can ever discard newly-budded Briars, but exhibiting 

 is not the end and object of Rose-growing ; nor ought we, for 

 the sake of getting a few fine Roses, to make our Rose gardens 

 unsightly the greatest part of the year by rows of bare 

 standards. We regret that Mr. Hibberd has not devoted more 

 space to describing the propagation of the Manetti and the 

 method of budding on it by barrel grafting; still he is 

 thoroughly iu favour of dwarf Roses, and what he does say is 

 very much to the point. 



We cannot altogether praise the woodcuts in the book ; some 

 are rough in the extreme ; and the woodcuts of the Rose 

 pavihon, page 178, and the design for the entrance to the Rose 

 garden, page 210, are very good examples, we should say, of 



