PEOPAGATION OF THE KOSE. 125 



allowed to make a rapid growth so late in the season, 

 there would be great danger of its being killed by frost. 

 European cultivators are very fond of budding several va- 

 rieties on one stock, in order to obtain the pretty effect 

 produced by a contrast of color. This will only answer 

 where great care is taken to select varieties of the same 

 vegetating force; otherwise one will soon outstrip the 

 others, and appropriate all the nourishment. It is also de- 

 sirable that they should belong to the same species. When 

 a bud is inserted in a plant in pot, as in fig. 12, the main 

 branches are left, and a portion of the top only cut off, in 

 order to give the bud some additional nourishment 



GRAFTING. 



From the pithy nature of the wood of the Rose, graft- 

 ing is always less certain than budding ; but it is frequently 

 adopted by cultivators, as budding cannot be relied upon 

 in the spring, and as there is much wood from the winter 

 pruning which would be otherwise wasted. It is also 

 useful for Avorking over those plants in which buds have 

 missed the previous summer. 



There are several modes of grafting, of which the most 

 generally practiced is cleft-grafting. For this mode, the 

 stock is cut off at tlie desired lieight with a sharp knife, 

 either horizontally, or slightly sloping. The cut should 

 be made just above a bud, which may serve to draw up the 

 sap to the graft. The stock can then be split with a heavy 

 knife, making the slit or cleft about an inch long. The 

 cion should be about four iiic])cs long, with two or more 

 buds upon it. An inch of the lower part of the cion can 

 be cut in tlie shape of a wedge, making one side very 

 thin, and on the thick or outer side, loaving a bud oppo- 

 site to the top of the wedge. This ci; ii can then be in- 

 serted in the cleft as f..r as the wedge is cut, biing very 

 careful to make the bark of the cion fit exactly to that of 



