500 GENERAL REVIEW. 



in a shady and sheltered situation, or under hand-glasses out 

 of doors. Here let them remain for a year, when such as grow 

 will have become good-sized, well-rooted plants, ready for re- 

 moval to any part of the garden." 



The following plan for rooting Rose - cuttings has been 

 extensively adopted by Mr Rivers, who thus describes his 

 method. " About the middle to the end of September prepare 

 your cuttings as follows : Take shoots of Roses full of life, and 

 vigorous, with, say, five leaves ; remove three of these, and leave 

 two, cutting off the lower part of the cutting near the bud with 

 a sharp knife ; then take pots four to five inches in diameter, 

 and fill them to one-fourth their depth with decayed (a year 

 old) cocoa-nut fibre, then place five or six cuttings round the 

 inside of the pot, resting on it the lower ends, thrust through 

 the fibre at the bottom of the pot, then fill up the pot with the 

 same kind of fibre, and press it well down. A piece or two of 

 broken pot should be put at the bottom of each pot for drain- 

 age. Their after-management is of great consequence, for on 

 that depends success, or the contrary; nothing can be more 

 simple. Place the pots of cuttings out of doors in full sun- 

 shine, unless the autumn is particularly hot and dry they can 

 then go in the shade for a week or so. They may stand in 

 this exposure till the end of November, or even later if the 

 autumn be mild ; and if in October the weather be dry and 

 sunny, they should be sprinkled with water morning and after- 

 noon, so as to keep the leaves fresh and tolerably green. At 

 the end of November or middle of December, if mild (all 

 depending on weather), the pots should be placed in a frame 

 or cool greenhouse, and have plenty of air till they put forth 

 their leaves and roots, when they may be potted or planted 

 out. Formerly, as is well known, the cuttings of Pelargoniums 

 were struck in heat with much trouble and often great loss ,> 

 they are now propagated after the method I have recommended 

 for Roses with unvarying success. This is my Rose secret, to 

 which the Rose world is most welcome. I may mention that 

 Climbing Roses, Hybrid China Roses, the hardy Tea Roses, 

 the Bourbon Roses, the hardy Noisette Roses, and, above all, 

 the Hybrid Perpetuals, are all amenable to this mode of pro- 

 pagation." Rose-cuttings taken off in summer with a heel 

 of the old wood root freely in damp sphagnum moss, or in 

 bottles of rain-water. Many of the rare old species, such as 

 jR. rugosa and others, may be readily increased by means of 

 root-cuttings. 



A few years ago Mr Shirley Hibberd published a method of 

 raising Roses on their own roots from eyes, which are cut from 



