CULTURE OF THE ROSE. 171 



a stalk then arose from this bud, which finally expanded into 

 leaves and formed a perfect plant. (See Fig. 16.) 



An English writer remarks, that " the leaves or leaflets of a 

 rose will often take root more freely than even cuttings, and in a 

 much shorter time, but these uniformly refuse to make buds or 

 grow." 



This experiment is certainly very curious, and evinces how 

 great, in the vegetable kingdom, are the powers of nature for the 

 re-production of existence, and is one of those singular results 

 which should lead us to make farther experiments with various 

 parts of plants, and teach us that even in Horticulture there is 

 yet a wide field for scientific research. 



BY LAYERS. 



This mode is more particularly applicable to those roses that 

 bloom only once in the year, and which do not strike freely from 

 cuttings, although it can be equally well applied to all the smooth- 

 wooded kinds. It can be performed at midsummer and for sev- 

 eral weeks afterward, and should be employed only in those 

 cases where young shoots have been formed at least a foot long 

 and are well matured. The soil should be well dug around the 

 olant, forming a little raised bed of some three feet in diameter, 

 with the soil well pulverized and mixed with some manure well 

 decomposed, and, if heavy, a little sand. A hole should then be 

 made in this bed about four inches deep, and the young matured 

 shoot bent down into it, keeping the top of the shoot some three or 

 four inches above the surface of the ground ; the angle thus being 

 found, which should always be made at a bud and about five or 

 six inches from the top of the shoot, the operator should cut off 

 all the leaves below the ground. A sharp knife should then be 

 placed just below a bud, about three inches below the surface of 

 the ground, and a slanting cut made upward and lengthwise, 

 about half through the branch, forming a sort of tongue from one 

 to two inches long, on the back part of the shoot right opposite 

 the bud ; a chip or some of the soil can be placed in the slit to 

 prevent it from closing, and the shoot can then be carefully laid 



