ROSES 
*57 
sought among the single or semi-double kinds, and carefully placed on 
the stigma. Then, again, many of the introduced species will not ripen 
their seeds out of doors in this country. To obtain good seeds, the fruit 
should be allowed to stay on the tree until its fleshy envelope has turned 
black. The fruit should be dried in the sun after gathering, then broken 
open, and the seeds rubbed out and cleaned in sand. They should be sown 
at once in pans of sandy loam and leaf-mould, well mixed; and the pans 
placed in a cold frame. Germination does not take place rapidly, but in 
some cases the young plants will show in spring, others not until the fol¬ 
lowing autumn. Those that appear in spring should be allowed to remain 
in the seed-pans till autumn, when they should be potted singly if of 
delicate parentage, planting them out in the spring. If, however, they 
are of a more hardy lineage, they may be put into nursery beds where 
they will be protected from frost. Some of these may flower in a 
tentative fashion during their first summer; others take several years in 
which to prepare for a floral display, but the amateur is warned that he 
must not judge the quality of his seedlings by this first effort at flower 
production. These essays on the part of the immature plant are as a 
rule mere indications of the colour of future flowers, which will probably 
be entirely different in form and size, and almost certainly superior. Of 
course the species all come true from seeds. Seedling briars are raised 
in thousands to serve as stocks for the garden varieties. 
CUTTINGS may be taken at any time except only during the winter 
months. The summer is a better time than spring for the purpose, as 
they may then be cut from the partly-ripened new growths; and in 
autumn the cuttings may be taken from perfectly mature wood. They 
should be a foot or slightly less in length, and if taken in spring should 
preferably be contrived with a small base of last year’s wood. Care 
should be taken not to injure the leaves or eyes. Cuttings of Hybrid 
Perpetuals and other hardy sorts may be struck out of doors, but those 
of the tender kinds, such as the Tea-scented, must be inserted in pots of 
sandy soil indoors. For outdoor treatment a bed should be well dug 
and the cuttings stuck in to half their length, a foot or more apart, and 
the ground well trodden around each. Patience must be exercised in 
regard to them, for the parts above ground may wither and die, and yet 
new shoots may come later from the buried eyes. They should be allowed 
to remain undisturbed for a year, when they should be well-rooted young 
plants, that may be removed to their permanent stations. Tender Roses 
are best struck in pots during the autumn months, and kept under glass; 
if the business is unavoidably postponed till late in the autumn, the pots 
containing them must be wintered in a cold frame. In the spring and 
