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PART III. 



GENERAL CULTURE AND PROPAGATION 

 OF ROSES. 



TREATMENT OF THE SEED, SOWING, &c. 



The hips of all the varieties of roses will in 

 general be fully ripe by the beginning of Novem- 

 ber ; they should then be gathered and kept entire, 

 in a flower-pot filled with dry sand, carefully 

 guarded from mice ; in February, or by the first 

 week in March, they must be broken to pieces 

 with the fingers, and sown in flower-pots, such as 

 are generally used for sowing seeds in, called 

 ' seed-pans,' but for rose seeds they should not 

 be too shallow ; nine inches in depth will be 

 enough ; these should be nearly, but not quite, 

 filled with a rich compost of rotten manure and 

 sandy loam or peat ; the seeds may be covered, to 

 the depth of about half an inch, with the same 

 compost ; a piece of kiln wire must then be placed 

 over the pot, fitting closely at the rim, so as to 

 prevent the ingress of mice, which are passionately 



M 



