On the Cultivation of the Rose. --31 
It requires some little skill to prune the Tree Rose properly, but any 
person accustomed to the care of vines would readily comprehend the 
mode of doing it. The same principle is applicable to both. The chief 
art consists in .etaining certain branches to form a regular head; and in 
priming those so as to effect that purpose, and, at the same time, cause 
them to throw out supplies of young wood. In the last week of Febru- 
ary, or the first week of March, the shoots of the preceding year, which 
are intended for producing flowers, should be cut back, leaving only 
two eyes to each. 
The Composition for covering wounds after pruning, is made thus : — 
Quarter of a pound of black resin, quarter of a pound of black pitch, and 
half an ounce of bees wax, melted together, and just when it is about to 
rise in the pot, sMr it with a tallow candle until the froth is settled down. 
When it has cooled some degrees, lay it on the wounds with a brush, to 
the thickness of a six-pence. 
It will not be out of place here to notice a common error, which al- 
most every body has heard of, and which some few novices in gardening 
receive as a fact. It is, that a Rose budded on a Black Currant tree 
will produce black flowers. At what period this notion originated it 
would perhaps be difficult to ascertain ; but is no very modern idea, for 
we find it mentioned in the " Maison Rustique," (London, 1600,) where 
the equally probable and practicable method of obtaining a Rose with 
green flowers, by budding on a Cabbage stalk, is recommended. Never- 
theless, it is true that grafts or buds of one tree will sometimes take upon 
stocks of a different genus. Du Hamel succeeded in budding the Rose 
upon the Oak ; but the fact, however interesting to the naturalist, and cu- 
rious in a physiological point of view, leads to no useful practical purpose, 
for in the result it is found that although such buds may take, and even 
grow freely for a time, they always perish in a few months, and frequent- 
ly cause the destruction of the stocks also : where there is no natural 
connection betweeen the bud and the stock, there ever is a want of con- 
formity in their vessels and juices, which sooner or later proves fatal to 
one or both. 
Generally speaking there is no need for grafting Roses, the claying 
part of which is rough unpleasant work. Budding, either in the spring 
or summer, is a perfect substitute for it. However, for the benefit of 
amateurs, I will just mention a mode of grafting, which afforded an in- 
valid confined to his house, some amusement, and succeeded completely. 
He had some Dog Roses, grubbed from a copse, with about three inches 
of the stem preserved to each root. These having been brought into his 
apartment, with a supply of scions, he grafted upon them a number of 
Noisettes, Boursault, and other choice Roses, in the '* cleft" and "whip" 
manner, after which they were clayed, and planted in a cool frame, so 
deep as to leave only one eye appearing above the soil. In due time 
they all shot out, and a large proportion grew vigorously and blossomed 
