ROSES FOR EXHIBITION. 23 I 



Upon it have a more luxuriant growth than those which are 

 budded on the Brier ; and that Rose-trees upon the Manetti 

 are the most enduring, and therefore the most economical, 

 because the Brier, divested of its laterals, and exposed to 

 all weathers, is in a less natural position, and because the 

 Rose, if budded as it ought to be on the Manetti, that is, 

 below the soil, will establish itself on roots of its own. I 

 know, in fine, that the importation of this stock has been 

 a very gracious boon to those who love the Rose ; but I am 

 equally sure that nine-tenths of the most perfect Roses whieh 

 have been grown and shozun have been cnt from the British 

 Brier. I have proved this not only from my own experience, 

 having grown the two stocks side by side, in a variety of 

 seasons and soils, but also from inspection and inquiry. 

 Latterly I have made a point of asking at our exhibitions 

 the parentage of Roses which have been admired the most ; 

 and the answers have been, ninety per cent of them, as I 

 foreknew they would be, "the Brier." In Dorsetshire, in the 

 summer of 1868, two of our best Rosarians (if they read these 

 lines, a brother's love to them) " discoursed as they sat on 

 the green," and when they had discoursed, it was written by 

 one of them (see the Journal of H or tictilture for August 13, 

 1868), " For general use the Brier is doomed ; . . . it is 



