FORCING ROSES. 95 



plants for cut flowers is that they give single buds, and there is 

 no waste as with the older plants which flower in clusters. There 

 is a great difference in the size of the plants ; some have twelve 

 or more buds, and some only three or four. 



Mr. Merriam asked whether the effect of frost was not the same 

 as the effect of time and drought, without frost. His plants put in 

 without frost had done poorly. 



Dr. Sturtevant gave his views in regard to the effect of drought 

 and frost. When frost strikes a plant there is a change of densities, 

 and in cases there is an apparent transference of nutrient matter 

 from the outermost layers towards the interior. This same move- 

 ment also seems to occur from the inspissation of sap through 

 drought. The subject is, however, an intricate one, and must be 

 used, if at all, analogically. 



Mr. Hovey said it is admitted that the effect of frost is the same 

 as that of heat. In Russia it has been proposed to cook food b}' 

 subjecting it to intense cold. He had kept amaryllis seeds in a 

 cold room, and they came up in half the time required by seeds 

 which had not been exposed to severe cold. Frost acts as a pre- 

 mature ripening, and if the degree is not too great it does no harm. 

 He had known Tea rose bushes to split open from the eff^ect of frost. 



The Chairman said that the practical question for us is, whether 

 there is any way in which we can. bring our Hybrid Perpetual roses 

 into bloom earlier than we do now. 



Mr. Cartwright said that he had forced this class of roses for 

 seven 3'ears. He had always put them into the house the first of 

 December, and the first year he began to cut flowers on the 7th of 

 January ; the next year on the 17th ; this j^ear on the 3d of Feb- 

 ruary. Generally he began cutting from the 17th to the 20th of 

 January. 



The Chairman inquired whether he could not conceive of the 

 ripening of plants so as to start them earlier, and Mr. Cartwright 

 replied that he could not. 



Dr. Sturtevant said that by a judicious application of drought he 

 had flowered hard}' roses at Christmas. 



Mr. Cartwright had had roses in bloom before Christmas, but 

 they cost him a dollar apiece. 



Mr. Merriam said that his roses had, unlike Mr. Cartwright's, 

 bloomed unusually early this 3'ear. He mentioned an instance where 

 the culture of the grape had been attempted in a very moist climate 



