ROSES FOR EXHIBITION. 235 



November, 1873, and in excellent soil — old pas- 

 ture-land, recently added to my garden — I planted 

 2000 Manetti stocks, 2000 Standard, and 500 

 seedling Briers. They were intermixed, so that 

 there might be no difference in situation, and they 

 were all budded by the same hand iji 1874. In 

 the summer of 1875, the Standards made a mag- 

 nificent growth, such as I have never seen excelled 

 (I may mention that one shoot of my namesake, 

 Reynolds Hole, was more than 8 feet in length) ; 

 but the Roses were late and not large. The pro- 

 duce of the Manetti was also luxuriant — the 

 foliage very fine, and the flowers generally supe- 

 rior to those on the Standards. The buds on the 

 seedling Brier made a slower, shorter, but stronger 

 growth ; and their first bloom was inferior to the 

 others. Their Roses in the autumn were the larg- 

 est and brightest of all. In 1876 we had in this 

 ground, and elsewhere, a glorious harvest, and 

 were triumphant whenever we exhibited, even 

 when nurserymen of roseate reputation in our 

 midland shires competed against us. In the ex- 

 perimental ground, we cut our best Roses from 

 the Standard and seedling Brier. Although many 

 of the Manetti were as good as their neighbors, 

 some scores of them made such a feeble growth, 

 that we removed them in autumn, and found their 



