MULTIPLICATIOX BY SEED AND HYBRIDIZING. 135 



they have made their ' rough leaves,' that is, when they 

 have three or four leaves, they must be carefully raised 

 with the point of a narrow pruning-knife, potted into small 

 pots, and placed in the shade ; if the weather is very hot 

 and dry, they may be covered with a handglass for a few 

 days. They may remain in those pots a month, and then 

 be planted out into a rich border ; by the end of August 

 those that are robust growers will have made shoots long 

 enough for budding." Until the plants have become 

 firmly rooted, and, in fact, through the most of the first 

 summer, they should be protected from the heat of the 

 sun ; a cheap mode of doing this is to put up rough posts, 

 connect them by pieces of wood, lay rough slats across 

 these, and cover the whole with straw or cornstalks ; but 

 a much neater covering is a good canvas awning, sup- 

 ported by posts, which can be taken down when not need- 

 ed, and will last many years. The Bourbons and Bengals, 

 with the Teas and ISToisettes, will sometimes bloom the 

 first season; but as the plant will be weak, a correct 

 opinion cannot be formed of its character until the second 

 summer. The summer roses, or those which bloom only 

 once in the season, never show bloom until their third, and 

 sometimes not until their fourth and fifth year. It is well 

 to let all the plants remain in the seed-bed until the fifth 

 year, as some which prove unpromising at first may result 

 in something really good. All that prove bad the fifth 

 year can be marked for destruction, or cut down to receive 

 the buds of the good varieties. In order to obtain a good 

 bloom as soon as possible, it is well to have ready some 

 strong stocks of the Greville, Mannetti, or any other free- 

 growing rose, into which buds can be inserted of any of the 

 seedlings whose habit and general appearance promise good 

 flowers, and whose growth has been sufilcient to furnish 

 good buds. The next spring the stock should be cut down 

 to the bud, which will then make luxuriant shoots, and 

 produce flowers the same season, if an Everblooming va- 



