246 ROSE STOCKS. 



this stock one year from the bud ; these, when taken np and potted 

 last autumn, are larger than I could possibly have grown them on their 

 own roots in four years. Then as to free-growing Roses, you, Mr. 

 Editor, were an eye-witness to a specimen which I sent you last autumn, 

 of Moss Laneii, having six branches five feet high. It was by no 

 means a solitary specimen, for I had at the time a large quarter in my 

 nursery full of plants of a similar character, and seen by nurserymen 

 and many other persons, in the course of last autumn. Mr. William 

 Paul is the only party I have yet heard speak, or seen write against 

 the merits of Rose Manettii as a stock, and this gentleman appears to 

 me to have been prejudiced against it from the first, for when he called 

 upon me two years ago, he then admitted tliat " although they had 

 been in possession of tlie Manettii Rose for two or three years, they 

 had not cultivated it to any extent." And Mr. Paul remarked, " I 

 have no good opinion of it, it grows too robust, and will be subject to 

 produce natural suckers, &c. ; and although they are fine now, they 

 will never come so fine again when they are cut down." In this he 

 was mistaken, for their strength has increased with their age — the bud 

 and stock mutually swelling together. Mr. "W". Paul now says (see 

 Gardeners Chronicle, June 8th, p. 358), that the Manettii lias had 

 five or six years' fair trial in their nursery, and he is still of the same 

 opinion. This will, however, depend upon what he calls a fair trial. 

 Have they tried a thousand stocks with a hundred different varieties of 

 Roses in equal quantities from the various classes ? and have they tried 

 it in rich land, and in poor land, and in pots? If they have not done 

 this, they have not given it a fair trial. Mr. Paul next finds a deputy 

 (Mr. Saul) to express his ideas, and intimates to parties interested in 

 the matter, that if they refer to Mr. Saul's letter, they Avill there find 

 facts and reasons, evidently the result of observation and study. As 

 desired, I have referred to Mr. Saul's letter in the Chronicle, but I 

 find that instead of the Manettii stock being there condemned, Mr. Saul 

 merely mentions it in the way of a reference to the remarks of " An 

 Amateur." Facts, however, are stubborn things ; and I am speaking 

 of what has really occurred in my actual jjractice. In my opinion, it 

 is the suitable quality and not the quantity of sap in stocks that will 

 ensure tlie greatest success in all grafting and budding operations. It 

 is well known that many sorts of Pears will not take, and others make 

 but feeble progress upon Quince stocks ; but place the same upon 

 Pear stocks — no matter how robust they are, or how abundant the 

 sap — it being more congenial to their nature, on this they will thrive. 

 In like manner many of the French Roses, and the most delicate 

 growers of the Bourbons, Chinas, and Teas will scarcely unite, or if 

 they do take, tiiey seldom exist more than a year or two upon the 

 briar, yet they will take freely, and grow amazingly upon the Rose 

 Manettii, and continue to thrive, producing both foliage and flower of 

 the most robust kind. I one day last week visited a gentleman's 

 garden some miles distant from here, the situation of which is low and 

 damp, and I there saw a quantity of Rose trees which I had supplied 

 last autumn. About half of them were upon briars and the other half 

 on the Manettii. Some of those on briars were dead : the others^ 



