vii STOCKS 133 



well as setting a supply at home. An amateur com- 

 mencing business had better buy a double supply of 

 cuttings the first year, half rooted for budding the 

 next year, and half unrooted for the year after. 



Manetti cuttings, which may be useful to an ex- 

 hibitor for the production of early maiden blooms of 

 the H.P.s, may be raised and treated in exactly the 

 same way. They strike much easier than the briar 

 cuttings, and there should be very few which fail to 

 root. 



I have never gone the length of trying to raise 

 briar seedlings, as they are cheap to purchase in 

 quantity, and I have not much faith in the stock for 

 highly cultivated Boses. The seeds should be rubbed 

 out of the ripe heps, and sown an inch deep in drills 

 about a foot apart. All will not germinate, and a 

 great amount of difference will be found in the plants 

 by the end of the year. Many will still be quite tiny 

 things, and a person unacquainted with their power 

 of growth vfould think the finest far too weak for 

 budding the following August. But the second 

 year's growth is astonishing : puny plants , with 

 shoots hardly bigger than knitting-needles, will 

 sometimes in that short time have become verit- 

 able bushes with strong fleshy upright shoots, and a 

 main root to bud on as thick as a man's finger. 

 Those that are evidently too small for budding the 

 following summer should be reserved for another 

 year, or transferred to pots for budding or grafting 

 there. 



The seedling briar has naturally a tap-root ; in 

 fact, as with all seedlings, there is only a tap-root at 

 first. "When purchased, the length and straightness 

 of the roots are remarkable : and it seems probable 



