234 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



throwing an old mat over all), you must be most vigilant 

 in your selection of the stocks themselves. Some gardeners 

 display in this matter a lamentable indifference. Their 

 motto seems to be Stamnata quid faciiuit? — why should 

 not one Brier be as good as another .'* Their budding- 

 ground might be an asylum for the deformed, the weak, the 

 aged, instead of the school for healthful youth and the 

 training-ground for heroes. Let the amateur, avoiding 

 this fatal error, and remembering as his rule, Ex qiiovis 

 ligno non fit Mcrciirius, select young, straight, sapful, well- 

 rooted stocks, that the scion may be vigorous as the sire. 

 Let these be planted as soon as he receives them — his 

 collector bringing them in daily, and not keeping them at 

 home, as the manner of some is, until he gets a quantity — 

 in rows, the Briers i foot, the rows 3 feet apart. 



The situation and the soil for your Briers must be just as 

 carefully studied as though the Roses were already upon 

 them. These stocks are not to be set in bare and barren 

 places, exposed to ridicule and to contempt, as though they 

 were the stocks of the parish ; nor are they to be thrust 

 into corners, as I have seen them many a time. They 

 should occupy such a position as one sees in the snug 

 " quarters " of a nursery — spaces enclosed by evergreen 



