116 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



that they may order those most suitable for the 

 several varieties and the purposes for which they 

 are designed. Except that we cannot, fortunately, 

 purchase Teas upon the manetti stock, as the union 

 is universally acknowledged to be a failure the 

 principal varieties of Roses may now be obtained of 

 those nurserymen who make them a speciality upon 

 the four recognised stocks — standards, briar cuttings, 

 briar seedlings and manetti. Which shall we 

 choose ? 



The advantages and disadvantages of the standard 

 stock may be summed up as follows. It does very 

 well for the old-fashioned summer Eoses of the 

 Hybrid China and Bourbon races, where a fine head 

 and a grand mass of bloom just in the season is 

 desired, but is not suitable for the Mosses, Austrians, 

 and the majority of the other kinds that bloom 

 but once. It is also a good stock for most of 

 the H.P.s, forming large heads with the strong- 

 growing sorts, and perhaps producing more refined 

 flowers from those which are inclined to be coarse. 

 For a time the weaker-growing varieties also do 

 well on this form of stock, perhaps even better than 

 as "dwarf" plants, but only the very hardiest and 

 most vigorous are as lasting on the standard as are 

 properly planted specimens on the cutting and 

 seedling briar. 



A majority of all sorts of Teas and Noisettes 

 give better and finer flowers on standard than on 

 dwarf stocks. The natural idea would be to have 

 the stronger forms of Teas, such as Marie van 

 Houtte and Anna Olivier, as standards, and those of 

 weaker growth, such as Comtesse de Nadaillac and 

 Cleopatra, as dwarfs. As regards the outward 



