272 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



paint our boxes, sharpen our stakes for the budded 

 Briers in spring, and sharpen our wits, too, by 

 studying the chronicles of past Rose-shows, the 

 manuals and the catalogues of our chief Rosarians. 

 In 



February 



the cry is ' All in to begin,' as it used to be the 

 showman's when we went to the fair, for no more 

 Rose-trees can be planted when this month has 

 passed. The grafting of Rose-cuttings on the Brier 

 or Manetti stocks, grown in pots for the purpose, 

 is now a very interesting process, where there is a 

 propagating-house, or other means, as in the tan- 

 bed of a stove, of supplying a regular bottom-heat 

 to the roots. The art may be learned in a lesson, 

 and I know of few things more pleasing in the 

 pleasant life of a Rosarian than to watch the con- 

 junction of stock and scion, which commences almost 

 immediately, the re-potting, and the gradual growth 

 of the Rose-tree. Darwin, in a free translation of 

 Virgil, has happily described this development : — 



' On each lopped shoot a foster scion bind, — 

 Pith pressed to pith, and rind appHed to rind- 

 So shall the trunk with loftier crest ascend, 

 Nurse the new bud, admire the leaves unknown, 

 And blushing, glow with beauty not its own ' 



