588 



ROSACEyE. XXII. ROSA. 



instances. In France and Italy the usual mode is to form a plan- 

 tation of double and semidouble sorts, mixed indiscriminately, 

 and take the result of promiscuous impregnation ; it is also done 

 in some of the nurseries of this country. The hips generally 

 ripen in October or November. The scuds do not vegetate till 

 the second season after sowing. The first year, instead of sou-ing 

 them, they may be preserved among sand, or the hips entire may 

 be so preserved a full year, when the husks will be perfectly 

 rotten, and the seed being separated and sown in February will 

 come up in May or June following. The seeds should be sown 

 in soft soil, and in a shady situation, or they may be covered with 

 earth from a \ to \ an inch, according to the size of the seeds. 

 Early in the second spring they may be planted in rows a foot 

 or 2 feet apart every way, according to the size of the sorts. 

 Here they may remain till they flower, which varies in the dif- 

 ferent sorts from the third to the fifth year, but most commonly 

 they flower the fourth summer. 



By layers. The common mode is to lay down the young 

 shoots of the preceding summer late in autumn or early in the 

 succeeding spring, and then, with the exception of the moss-rose, 

 and one or two others, they form rooted plants by the next 

 autumn. But it is now found, that if the same shoots are laid 

 down when the plant is beginning to flower in July, they will, 

 with a few exceptions, produce roots, and be fit to remove the 

 same autumn, by which a whole year is gained. Such sorts as 

 do not root in one year must be left on the stools till the second 

 autumn ; but layers made when the shoot is in a growing state, 

 and furnished with heahhy leaves, root much more freely than 

 shoots of ripe wood. After the plants are removed from the 

 stools they are planted in nursery rows, and in a year the blos- 

 som buds, having been carefully pinched off from the first lay- 

 ing down, they will be fit for removal to their final destination. 

 The stools are then to be pruned, and the soil stirred and en- 

 riched. 



By suckers. Many of the commoner sorts admit of being 

 rapidly multiplied in this way, and the plants obtained may be 

 planted in their final destination at once. 



By cuttings Most sorts might be propagated in this way 

 from cuttings of young wood, cut at a joint where it is beginning 

 to ripen, and planted in sand and vegetable mould under a hand- 

 glass. But this mode is only adopted with such sorts as strike 

 easily, as the Indian and Chinese kinds. 



By budding. This mode of propagating roses is adopted only 

 with the rarer kinds, and such as are difficult to propagate by 

 layers ; for it is found that plants so originated, even though on 

 stocks of the hardier sorts, are less durable than such as are 

 raised by any of the other modes. But the chief use of budding 

 in the culture of the rose is to produce standard-roses, or to pro- 

 duce several sorts from the same tree or bush. Standard-roses 

 are a modern invention, it is generally supposed of the Dutch, 

 first carried to Paris, and about 30 years ago to England. They 

 are highly artificial objects of great beauty, and form magnifi- 

 cent ornaments to parterres and borders. The stocks are either 

 of the tree rose, Rosa v'dlosa, or of any sorts of wild roses, 

 which grow to a large size. They are budded at different 

 heights, from 3 to 7 feet, but commonly between 5 and 6 from 

 the ground. A stock in the Paris garden, which carries several 

 sorts, has a .naked stem of nearly 15 feet high, and there are 

 others at Malmaison and at Grand Trianon of equal height. 

 The stocks are procured from woods and copses, and after being 

 planted in nursery lines are often budded the same summer, 

 sometimes in summer by the scalope mode of budding, V ceil puis- 

 sant of the French ; and never later than the succeeding spring 

 or summer by the common mode. Generally two buds are in- 

 serted on opposite sides of the stock, but often 3-4- or a dozen in 



alternate positions on the upper G or 12 inches of the stem. 

 Every stock is supported by a rod, which should reach a foot or 

 eighteen inches higher than the situation of the bud ; to this rod 

 the stock is tied, and afterwards the shoots from the buds, 

 which are otherwise liable to be blown out by high winds. The 

 Paris nurserymen being supplied with stronger stocks than can 

 readily be procured in England, and having a better climate and 

 more experience in the culture of roses, excel us in this depart- 

 ment of rose propagation, and their standards afford an article 

 of commerce with other countries. Their common plants raised 

 by layers are also in extensive demand, but in these we equal if 

 not surpass them. Fine collections of standard roses may be 

 seen in Lee's nursery at Hammersmith, in the Count de Vande's 

 garden at Bayswater, in the duchess of Dorset's at Knowle, and 

 in various other places. 



Final situation. No species of rose, wild or cultivated, thrives 

 well in or near large towns, on account of the smoke or con- 

 fined air. The yellow and Austrian roses, R. lutea and R. bi- 

 color are difficult to flower in any situation. Roses are gener- 

 ally planted in the front of shrubberies and in borders ; they 

 are also planted by themselves in rose gardens or rosaries, in 

 groups on lawn or gravel, either with common box or other 

 edgings, or with edgings of wire, in imitation of basket-work ; 

 these last are called baskets of roses ; the ground inclosed in 

 the basket margin is made convex, so as to present a greater 

 surface to the eye, and increase the illusion ; the shoots of the 

 stronger sorts are layered or kept down by pegs till they strike 1 

 root, so that the points of the shoots furnished with buds appear 

 only above the soil, which is sometimes covered with moss or 

 small shells ; under this treatment the whole surface of the 

 basket becomes in two or three years covered with rose-buds and 

 leaves, of one or of various sorts. Where one of the larger free 

 growing sorts is employed, as the moss rose, or any of the Pro- 

 vins' varieties, one plant may be trained so as to cover a surface 

 of many square yards. Where different sorts are introduced in 

 the same basket, they should be as much as possible assimilated 

 in size of leaves and flowers and habits of growth, and as 

 different as possible in the colours of their flowers. By mixing 

 small-flowered with large-flowered sorts, the beauty of the for- 

 mer is lost without adding to the effect of the latter. In rosa- 

 ries commonly but one plant of a sort is introduced, and the 

 varieties which most resemble each other are placed together, 

 by which their distinctive differences are better seen. Parti- 

 cular compartments are often devoted to one species, as the 

 Scotch, Chinese, yellow, burnet-leavcd, &c. which has an excel- 

 lent effect, sometimes a piece of rock-work in the centre is 

 covered with creeping roses, and on other occasions they are 

 trained to trellis-work, which forms a fence or hedge of roses 

 round the whole. In this hedge standard roses are sometimes 

 introduced at regular distances ; a grove of standards is also 

 frequently formed in the centre of the rosary, and sometimes 

 they are introduced here and there in the beds. Standard roses, 

 however, have certainly the best effect in flower borders, or 

 when completely detached on a lawn ; their sameness of form, 

 and that form very compact and bushy, prevents them from 

 grouping well, either among themselves or with other objects. 

 Their beauty consists in their singularity, as rose plants, and in 

 their flowers ; and therefore to display these beauties to the best 

 advantage, they require to be seen singly, or in sviccession. This 

 is the case where they occur as single objects on a lawn, or in 

 the centre, or here and there among groups of flowers, or in 

 lines or avenues along flower-walks. 



Soil. Most species of the rose, in their wild state, grow in 

 sandy and rather poor soil, excepting such as are natives of 

 woods, where the soil is richer and comparatively moist. But 



