THE BOOK OF ROSES. 47 



portant in a botanical point of view ; yet it is as 

 well to observe whether they are pendant in 

 their growth and infertile in suckers, or trailing 

 horizontally in the ground and throwing up nu- 

 merous offsets. Rose-trees obtained from seed 

 are the only ones whose roots have an indi- 

 vidual character; while those obtained from 

 grafts and subjected to grafting, are uniformly 

 trailers. 



SHRUB, OR TREE. Every plant having a lig- 

 neous or woody stem, which lasts for several 

 years, is a tree, a shrub, or bush. The distinc- 

 tions between the three are very irregularly 

 maintained by botanists : 



1. A bush is generally supposed to mean 

 a woody plant, between a few inches and four 

 feet. 



2. A shrub, a plant between four feet and 

 fifteen. 



3. A tree, a plant between fifteen and a 

 hundred, or upwards. ' 



There are rose-trees, however, of three or four 

 inches in height, such as the Lawranceana, as 

 well as from twenty to five-and-twenty feet ; 

 but both are indiscriminately called rose-tree 

 and rose-bush. The tree is, however, called a 

 dwarf when lower than a foot. 



A rose-tree is termed bushy, when the 

 branches and foliage lie close ; branching, when 

 the boughs extend irregularly ; erect, when the 



