118 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE CHAP. 
chosen for the H.P.s, for as a general rule quite as 
good blooms and a better general appearance, with 
less cost and trouble, can be obtained from dwarfs. 
La France, Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, and some of 
the H.T.s must be taken as exceptions. Let the 
strongest-growing Tea Roses also be grown as 
dwarfs, if a bed of beautiful Roses be desired rather 
than extra fine blooms, or if the locality be lable to 
severe frost; but for exhibition purposes, or in any © 
case where the quality of the flowers is the principal 
object, they should be grown as standavrds, if it be 
found practicable to keep them alive during the 
winter. 
The next question, and it has long been a keenly 
debated one among Rosarians, is, which of the three 
dwarf stocks, briar cutting, briar seedling, or manetti 
cutting, is the best for purchased plants. The voice 
of the majority in the Rose world, with which I 
thoroughly agree, places the value of these stocks for 
permanent plants in the order named above. The 
advantages of the briar cutting are that it makes the 
finest permanent plants, that, taken all round, it 
gives the best blooms, and that its tendency to 
comparatively shallow roots makes it the most 
amenable to good cultivation. Its only disadvantages . 
are that it is not quite so early in blooming as 
plants on the manetti stock, and that its want of 
deep roots prevents its being able to stand neglect as 
well as those on the briar seedling. Thisis, however, 
a poor advantage to claim for the briar seedling, as 
the growth from the deep roots will not be so 
satisfactory or free-flowing. Even if the tap-roots 
are taken off, the plants are generally somewhat 
inferior to those on the cutting, and are the latest 
