356 LECTURE ON SPRING FLOWERING PLANTS. 



Hence it will be inferred that it is important to prepare 

 the plants to grow them in pots one season before re- 

 quired for forcing because in such condition they are 

 more under our control as regards the application of 

 moisture and heat ; we can rest them at pleasure, and 

 ensure a more regular growth and plentiful setting of 

 flower-buds. 



In preparing Roses for forcing we draw them from the 

 ground in November, and place them in pots of various 

 sizes to suit the age and vigour of the plant. 



We next plunge the pots in some sheltered spot in the 

 garden till the beginning of January, by which time fresh 

 rootlets will have formed, and the plants will be in a 

 condition to feed and grow. We now prune closely, and 

 place them in a pit or cool greenhouse, with the view of 

 slightly changing the seasons this first year. The mois- 

 ture and warmth of this house will induce an earlier 

 development of leaves, branches, and flowers than would 

 have taken place out of doors ; the flowers will probably 

 open in May. 



Pruning is a very important branch of Rose culture. 

 The principal ends sought are threefold 



1. To maintain the plants in health and vigour. 



2. To induce them to assume a form at once agree- 



able to the eye and most suitable for the develop- 

 ment and display of the flowers. 



3. To secure an abundance of fine flowers. 



The Greeks were alive to the advantages arising from 

 the removal of some of the branches in Rose trees, 

 although, in the absence of a knowledge of first principles, 

 they took a curious method of accomplishing it. Theo- 

 phrastus, who lived about 300 years before the Christian 

 era, tells us they used to set fire to the Rose trees in 

 Greece, without which they would never flower. We are 

 elsewhere told that the extraordinary vigour and beauty 

 of some plants on which goats had been browsing first 

 gave the ancients the idea of pruning. We know by 



