TREATMENT OF SEEDLINGS. 163 



shy bloomers on their own roots, till age and 

 careful culture give them strength. 



It may be mentioned here, as treatment ap- 

 plicable to all seed-bearing roses, that when it is 

 desirable the qualities of a favourite rose should 

 preponderate, the petals of the flower to be fer- 

 tilised must be opened gently with the fingers ; * 



* It rcquirt'S some"svatchfulness to do this at the proper time : 

 if too soon, the petals -will be injured in forcing them open: and 

 in hot weather in July, if delayed only an hour or two, the 

 anthers will be found to have shed their pollen. To ascertain 

 precisely when the pollen is in a fit state for transmission, a few 

 of the anthers should be gently pressed with the finger and 

 thumb : if the yellow dust adheres to them the operation may be 

 performed ; it requires close examination and some practice to 

 know when the flower to be operated upon is in a fit state to 

 receive the pollen ; as a general rule, the flower ought to be in 

 the same state of expansion, or, in other words, about the same 

 age. It is only in cases where it is wished for the qualities of a 

 particular rose to predominate that the removal of the anthers of 

 the rose to be fertilised is necessary ; thus, if a yellow climbing 

 rose is desired by the union of the Yellow Briar with the Ayr- 

 shire, every anthr should be removed from the latter, so that it 

 is fertilised solely with the pollen of the former. In some cases 

 where it is desirable to have the qualities of both parents in an 

 equal degree, the removal of the anthers need not take place ; 

 thus, I have found by removing them from the Luxembourg 

 Moss, and fertilising that rose with a dark variety of Eosa 

 Gallica, that the features of the Moss Rose are totally lost in its 

 offspring, and they become nearly pure varieties of Rosa Gallica; 

 but if the anthers of the Moss Rose are left untouched, and it is 

 fertilised with Rosa Gallica, interesting hybrids are the result, 

 more or loss mossy ; this seems to make superfcetat ion very pro- 

 bable ; yet Dr. Lindley, in * Theory of Horticulture,' page 332, 

 'thinks it is not very likely to occur.' 

 M 2 



