74 



CASSELL'S rOPULAR GARDENINa. 



grow very slowly during their first stages, these 

 seedlings would doubtless soon supersede all other 

 stocks for Roses. As it is, they are multiplying 

 in all directions, and one large grower for sale ad- 

 vertises as the highest recommendation that all the 

 Roses sent out from his firm are worked on the 

 seedling briar. Others are equally enthusiastic in 

 favour of briar cuttings. However, there is little 

 doubt that the seedling briar will continue to be 

 a favourite stock among rosaiians. 



The supply is virtually unlimited, for few plants 

 seed more profusely than the Dog-rose. With a view, 

 however, of having pure stocks, or strains of seeds, 

 several nurserymen have begun to grow their own 

 seeds. This is important, for in a bundle of seedling 

 briars lately to hand there was a large percentage 

 of Sweet-bx-iar, useless as a stock, and numerous 

 other species of Rose besides that of liosa canina. 



Time and Modes of Sowing Briar-seeds. 



• — As to time, so soon as rixDe, or in the spring, are 

 the only two seasons, and the first is the best. 

 Nothing is gained — a good deal, the seed itself, may 

 be lost or greatly injured — by being kept till the 

 spring. Rub the seeds out of the hips, mix them 

 with a little dry sand and part them from the chaffy 

 matter that envelops them, and sow at once. This 

 prevents the trouble and risk of drying, and the 

 seeds are safer in the earth than in bags or drawers. 



On the Continent it is customary to sow the seeds 

 under glass so soon as gathered, or in February or 

 March. They vegetate much sooner under this 

 extra warmth ; and as the season advances the glass 

 may be almost entirely withdrawn. Place it over 

 them, however, next winter, and the following spring 

 line out the j)lants in drills a foot apart, and two or 

 three inches from plant to plant. After a second 

 season's growth most of them will be fit to graft or 

 bud, and it is said that the French and other Con- 

 tinental seedling briars are almost as large again for 

 their age as the English. 



But the seeds may be safely reared in the open 

 air, either sown when gathered, or in the spring 

 after interlayering with sand through the winter. 

 8ow the seeds broadcast in beds, covering with at least 

 two inches of light compost, or in drills from two to 

 three inches apart, and from six inches to fifteen 

 between the rows. Keep free of weeds, and occa- 

 sionally water in dry weather, not only as a stimulant 

 to growth, but as a preventive of mildew. Some of 

 the finest plants should be thinned out, and placed at 

 wider intervals apart towards the end of the season. 

 As many of the seedlings will be very small, and part 

 of the seeds may not have yet vegetated, the safest 

 way of removing the finest plants to new quarters is 

 to thoroughly soak the seed-beds or rows, or choose 



a dripping time for the operation. Carefully loosen 

 up beds or rows with a fork, and then draw out all 

 the finest plants. A slight top-dressing and raking 

 smooth afterwards will make the original seed-beds 

 or lines safe, and the partial disturbance and dress- 

 ing will act as a stimulant to growth. 



The plants removed will have their quill-like roots 

 almost as long as the tops (Fig. 9, No. 1). These 



Fig. 9.— Seedling Briars, 1, root unprunecl ; 

 2, root and top shortened ; 3, after bud- 

 oing or grafting, and further growth, 

 showing the modifying power of the 

 Eose on the briar-root. 



should be pruned off within four or 

 six inches of the root-stock or collar 

 of the seedling, the collar being the 

 dividing line betw-een root and stem, 

 as in No. 2. After a year's growth, 

 soon after budding or grafting, No. 2 ^\ill develop 

 into a rooted state like No. 3. Plant at once in 

 light rich soil, and should they do well many of 

 these will be fit to graft by the autumn of the second 

 year — the majority when three years old. 



These seedling briar stocks, if budded or grafted 

 very low, seem to lose most of the rough, coarse and 

 rambling peculiarity of Dog-rose roots, and form 

 fibrous masses of rootlets more like those formed by 

 Roses on their own roots, the tops thus perhaps domi- 

 nating the root-form and development of the young 

 foster-mother (Fig. 9, No. 3) . Certainly it seems that 

 seedling briars worked early and worked low, almost 



