April 12,1 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
301 
Constancej while Clipper Improved and Eureka are the best 
winter whites I know.—W. J. M., Clonmel. 
GENTIANS. 
In the interesting note on Gentians, page 274, “ M. B.” has 
told exactly what I wanted to know about G. bavarica. We are 
trying many species of Gentians in the experimental gardens at 
Oakwood and here—some with complete success. If “ M. B.” 
will give me his address I shall have much pleasure in sending 
him seedlings of G. asclepiadea, both blue and white. It grows 
freely with us and sows itself about. I think one of the most 
beautiful of the family is what the late Mr. McNab grew, so well 
in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden rockwork under the name of 
G. gelida, but which I believe to be G. septemfida. G. Andrewsi 
grows well. A plant from our garden was figured in the “ Botanic 
Magazine,” and sows itself. It is curious, considering its closed 
petals, that it should be one of the freest-seeding of Gentians. 
Gentiana ornata, of which we have only one small plant, shows 
well with its beautiful pale blue flowers. Gentiana verna does 
fairly well. Gentiana acaulis *■ chooses to flourish ” at Wesley 
in the damp loam. Gentiana cruciata sows itself about. G. ba¬ 
varica has not as yet succeeded well, but I hope after “ M. B.'s ” 
hint3 that it will do so.— George F. Wilson, Heatherhanl, 
Weylridye Heath. 
CLIMBERS AS ROOF-COVERING PLANTS. 
TACSONIA MANICATA. 
As a greenhouse climber I know few more beautiful than this 
good old plant, yet we seldom see it recommended now. I have 
just been slightly pruning a plant that by-and-by will produce 
streamers of brilliant scarlet flowers. 1 find cuttings of the young 
Fig. 72.—Tacsonia manicata. 
growths when a little firm 
strike freely, and the plants 
grow w T ell in a compost of 
loam with a little peat and 
leaf soil added. I have been 
astonished to find the numbers 
of persons who ask the name 
of this climber. I thought 
everybody knew, but this is certainly not so, and more might 
know and grow it with advantage. About the plant historically 
I know nothing, but I know it is very beautiful when well grown 
under a light roof. —J. Boston. 
[This, commonly called the Gauntletted Tacsonia, is a native of 
Peru, and probably common there, for many botanical travellers 
have observed it. Humboldt and Bonpland brought some varie¬ 
ties from the city of Loxa ; Hartweg says that it is found in hedges 
near that place, and it forms No. 1294 of Linden’s Herbarium, 
ROSES. 
I HAVE grown for several years some thousands of Roses in my 
garden. They have been propagated upon every variety of 
stock, and have been planted in beds sheltered and exposed. The 
lesson I have learned has come from a variety of sources. The 
result is that I advise all amateur Rose-growers who do not give 
themselves up to the conceit of exhibition to discard all plants 
grown upon stocks. My experience shows that there is scarcely a 
Rose which is not better grown under suitable conditions upon 
its own roots than upon a stock, and I know of no Rose which 
will not grow well from cuttings, and be longer- 
lived and more floriferous, than Roses budded on 
a stock however vigorous. But success is entirely 
dependent upon treatment; starve a tender plant 
or grow it in sterile soil and you will have no 
blooms, and the weakling will shrink and die ; 
but give it a suitable and rich soil, and it will 
thrive better than upon the most robust stock. 
With plants grown on their own roots there are 
no unwelcome suckers. Do what you may, in a 
year or two the foreign stock will send up nurse¬ 
lings of its own tribe ; and if your plants die to 
the ground, as many of them will do in a rigorous 
winter or spring, there is no certainty, unless you 
expose the plant to the budded portion, whether 
the new shoots are Briars or bastards, the ille¬ 
gitimate offspring being in this case what you 
crave. 
It is much easier to nurserymen to propagate plants by budding 
than by cuttings. A Rose tree may yield a hundred strong buds 
but not ten good cuttings, and in skilful hands less buds than 
cuttings fail. Hence stock-budded plants are in favour. 
My words are for those who grow Roses in the garden, for 
those who love a bright show of beautiful flowers in the open sun¬ 
shine and upon their tables. I have never exhibited a Rose ; the 
pleasure of a day would not satisfy me. I require that the 
charms of the Rose beds should be had in natural luxuriance 
from June to November, and for every one who exhibits there 
are hundreds who grow Roses. In my case there is nothing selfish 
in my love of the flower; living a short distance from a large 
town my grounds are open for months for the pleasure of others. 
During the season many thousands of persons, the majority of 
them children, have the gardens thrown open to them, and not a 
bloom has been touched. 
I am obliged to grow the great majority of the Rose trees upon 
foreign stocks because I cannot buy plants propagated by cuttings. 
I am told it does not pay to grow them in that way, and that 
budded plants upon the Manetti, if planted deeply, will throw out 
roots from the scion and will thus give me what I need. Well, 
this proves my case. It shows that plants will thrive upon their 
own roots. Nay, more, it condemns the fashion of stock-propaga¬ 
tion ; for there is this weakness in the grower’s position—the 
scion will, it is true, produce its own roots, but the stock will pro¬ 
duce its own scions. Hence, though we may thus get a tree upon 
its own roots, it is apt to be surrounded by a tribe of rapacious 
blood-suckers. 
Would it not be worth while for some of our large nurserymen, 
or for one in a small way, to initiate a supply of Roses upon their 
own roots ? I would buy some hundreds yearly were they to be 
had, and there are many who would be glad to get a supply.— 
W. Simons, Merthyr Tydfil. 
