496 GENERAL REVIEW. 



a gentle bottom-heat. Gradually harden off the plants when 

 the union is complete, and set the pots out of doors in May or 

 June. An excellent plan is to dig up wild Brier roots in Jan- 

 uary, and to cut them in 4 to 6 inch lengths, reserving the 

 pieces next the stem or root stock, and throwing the rest 

 away, as these answer best; and roots are plentiful in every 

 wood 'and hedge. Now cut the scions with two or four buds 

 each, and cleft or wedge graft them on the stem end of the 

 roots, tie firmly with bast, give a coating with cold mastic to 

 guard against damp, and the thing is done. If the roots are 

 thin, never mind whip or splice graft them. After grafting, 

 plant them in the open ground, so as to just cover the graft, 

 and then cover with three or four inches of sawdust. Try it 

 yourself, and tell it to every one who loves the Rose. See an 

 interesting paper on " Rose Stocks " in * Jour. Royal Hort. Soc.' 

 (1850), vol. v. p. 70. 



Seed. Some varieties seed freely, some only when artificially 

 fertilised, and some not at all, owing to the suppression or 

 change of their sexual organs. Crossing is performed as in 



other hermaphrodite flow- 

 ers, by removing pollen 

 from the stamens, <?, to the 

 pistil of another flower, p. 

 M. Lacharme, a noted 

 Continental raiser of new 

 Roses, grows his seed- 

 bearing Roses trained to 

 a south wall. The first 

 flowering is from i5th 

 April to i'3th May, and 



e, the stains ; for 



the flowers are very full, 

 little disposed to produce reproductive or sexual organs, 

 and still less adapted for fecundation. It is necessary, there- 

 fore, to restrain this first blooming, so as to arrive as soon 

 as possible at the second flowering, which commences at the 

 end of June. This latter blooming is best for fertilisation, the 

 sexual or reproductive organs being better developed, owing to 

 the mere exuberant or vegetative growth having been expended 

 in the first flowers ; and the genial dews of summer are a further 

 aid to fecundation. " Some growers," writes M. Lacharme, 

 " practise artificial fertilisation, but I have little faith in it. It 

 is necessary that the specimens to be fertilised should be from 

 ten to twenty years old to produce really good new kinds." It 

 may be as well to note that, although M. Lacharme has un- 



