ROSE STOCKS. 



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and work on them the delicate Bourbons, Chinas, Teas, &c ; 

 for, say they, " the stocks are vigorous and free growers. See 

 what an amount of root they possess ! look at their lungs and 

 stomach, in the form of leaves, to carry on respiration and 

 digestion freely ! how rapidly they assimilate the food which is 

 transmitted to them by such powerful feeders ! " And upon 

 such stocks are budded delicate roses. During the first year all 

 goes on well ; the stock having been in vigorous health when 

 headed back, the bud is pushed out strongly, and in general 

 many of the sorts I have named will bloom profusely the first 

 season. But will this continue ? Tt will if the variety is a free 

 grower; but should the contrary be the case, it will go back 

 even more rapidly than it progressed. This is, theoretically, 

 what we might expect, and practice amply confirms the hypo- 

 thesis. The lungs so much talked about are cut off with the 

 heading back of the stock : the plant, with its thin, small, deli- 

 cate leaves, has now to digest and assimilate all the gross food 

 forced into them by such a mass of coarse and abundant feeders ; 

 the leaves are gorged to such an extent as to impede their 

 healthy action ; respiration and digestion go on slowly ; and this 

 continues to increase until all the functions of the plant are 

 totally suspended, and death puts an end to its existence. I 

 have frequently heard complaints made respecting the loss of 

 valuable Tea and other roses, which have been purchased, it 

 may be, at considerable expense, and surprise has been expressed 

 at their early death ; but if people would only examine the stocks 

 on which the plants were worked, the fact of their living so 

 long would be more a matter to be wondered at. 



The Dog-rose (Rosa canina) is the kind of stock which is so 

 extensively employed for roses in the nurseries of this country. 

 It is almost exclusively used for standards and half-standards, 

 and to an unlimited extent for dwarfs. All things considered, 

 it is greatly superior to every other stock : with the exception of 

 a few, which shall be hereafter noticed, most classes will grow 

 well upon it. Provins, Gallica, Moss, Hybrid Provins, Alba, 

 Hybrid China, Hybrid Bourbon, Damask, Austrian, Damask Per- 

 petual, Hybrid Perpetual, with many of the free-growing Bourbon 

 and Noisette kinds, will grow vigorously upon it. Many of the 

 delicate varieties in the two latter classes, as well as a few sorts 

 scattered through the others, will, however, not succeed upon 

 this stock ; but they are scarcely worth mentioning. 



The Manettii stock claims attention next : it stands at the 

 head of all cultivated stocks (not, of course, including the above), 

 and is very superior to the Crimson Boursault, Celine, &c. Its 

 good properties consist in its free, vigorous, and continuous 

 growth ; in this latter property it is superior to every other 



