ROSE STOCKS. 245 



they obtain thirty plants out of a hundred cuttings, their wants are 

 probably satisfied ; but not so with the nurseryman who has to calculate 

 upon a certain number annually. I need say little about the Briar, or 

 Dog-rose ; it has been so long in use, that all who grow Roses know 

 its capabilities in their particular localities. In strong, rich soils, it 

 grows the majority of Koses well, but on some light soils it will not 

 thrive at all, and on others only very indifferently ; and parties having 

 such land to cultivate will not buy a Rose upon a briar if tiiey know 

 it. It is also totally unfit for pot culture, and for growing Roses of 

 delicate habits on any soil. In my ground (which grows briars tole- 

 rably well) many of the French, Bourbon, and Tea-scented Roses will 

 hardly push their buds upon the briar, although well united ; and 

 othei's will only make a feeble growth for a year or two, and then pine 

 and die. And all this time the stocks are producing innumerable 

 suckers and natural shoots to retain life ; but as those are displaced, 

 and the sap is not of a nature congenial to the health of the buds, the 

 functions of the roots, under such circumstances, cease for the want of 

 foliage, to assimilate the sap, and death is the consequence. And now 

 I will speak of the Rose Manettii, which, of all others, is the stock 

 for Roses generally. Cuttings from tliis stock root with the same 

 certainty as Willows. It does not suffer with intense cold, nor extreme 

 heat ; it does not produce root suckers, neither does it require any 

 precaution to keep it from decay. You may prune it with scissors, 

 or with what else you please ; or you may break it or abuse it as you 

 like, and still the wounds will not fail to heal. Its tenacity of life is 

 most astonishing ; and, as an instance, I may mention that, in the 

 spring of 1849, I had some of it grafted with various Roses, and, the 

 season being late, a few of the grafts failed to grow. The stocks had 

 been cut below the eyes that were left on when the cuttings were 

 planted, but I naturally concluded that there might be some latent 

 buds near the base of the stocks that would push from below, or other- 

 wise the stocks would go dead ; but they did neither. In a little time 

 there were large, white callosities formed over the tops of them, and 

 they were actually alive this spring, having survived a summer and 

 winter without any foliage whatever. This also occurred with some 

 of the same kinds of stocks in pots under similar circumstances ; I 

 grafted them again this spring, and some of them are now living 

 plants. It is particularly adapted to pot culture, it produces such 

 abundance of fine fibrous roots. Last year (in July) I budded a quan- 

 tity in pots with Bourbon, China, and Tea-scented Roses ; in autumn 

 they were nice plants, a foot high, and such as I could not in the same 

 time have produced from cuttings, or by any other means. I can fully 

 bear Mr. Rivers out in his remarks respecting the progress of shy- 

 growing Roses on this stock ; but as I enumerated a number of those 

 in my paper on the same subject, which appeared in the Journal, 

 p. 772, 1849, I need not here repeat them; but I may state that I 

 have some such as Cliarles Souchet, Deuil de Due d'Orleans, Souvenir 

 de Dumont d'Urville, Madame Verdier, Ernest de Barante, &c., fine 

 bushy plants from last year's buds, known as shy growers, yet in such 

 perfection as tlicse sorts are seldera seen, I have also Tea Roses upon 



