THE FLORIST. 
209 
but few or no flowers ; and the shoots may be developed so gross as to render 
the flowering for the subsequent year partial or void. This is more to be feared 
when dealing with summer Roses and established plants than with the autumnals 
or newly planted ones. To what endless disappointment have those fine old 
Roses, Beauty of Billard, Brennus, and Fulgens, given rise from not blooming 
freely ! I have heard them branded as shy, bad bloomers, not worthy of a place 
in any garden. ‘ Grow they do,’ says the cultivator, ‘ and that most vigorously, 
but refuse to shadow forth a single blossom.’ Now, we would ask, should the 
blame, if blame there be, be attached to the varieties ? Is it natural for 
them not to flower ? Or does this state of things arise from the system of culti¬ 
vation ? We sometimes see them produce an abundance of flowers, and pro¬ 
nounce them perfect ; then surely the former is not the case. They and nu¬ 
merous others of like habit, vigorous growers, require long pruning; that is, a 
sulficient portion of the shoots should be cut away at their base, which is called 
thinning out, to allow a free admission of air and light into the heart of the tree; 
then the shoots which remain after thinning should be left long. If they are 
cut close, the eyes are developed as wood shoots, and not as flower shoots ; and 
this is the cause of their not blooming.” 
Mr. Paul is an advocate for disbudding Roses in tlie spring, by 
which means he anticipates the necessity of much pruning. We 
believe he is the first who has worked out this plan in reference to 
Roses, and it is done with clearness and precision. 
“ I believe disbudding,” he says, “ to be the system best calculated to pro¬ 
duce flowers in the finest possible condition, to keep a plant in full health and 
vigour, and to bring it to the highest pitch of beauty. It has been successfully 
applied in the cultivation of other trees, and why should it not answer when ap¬ 
plied to Roses ? But as one fact is said to be of more weight than a load of 
argument, I will relate an experiment commenced in the spring of 1844. I 
marked at that season from fifty to one hundred dwarf plants, which were budded 
in the previous summer; consequently they were what is termed in bud. My 
object was to test the efficiency of disbudding. They were intended to be grown 
in pots for exhibition, and each plant possessed two sound healthy buds formed 
closely together. Eyes continued to push forth both from the laterals and the 
base of the first shoots during the whole of summer. Now was the time to form 
the plants. Wherever an eye was seen to break in a position where thought 
superfluous or ill-placed, it was at once rubbed out, and the eyes bursting late in 
summer were invariably served the same. By October I had the satisfaction of 
seeing plants with from six to ten well-balanced shoots, vigorous, yet well ma¬ 
tured. The leaves were larger, and retained on the plants longer than on others 
of the same kinds ; the flowers were pronounced by competent judges to be 
superior to any of the kinds they had previously seen. In October the plants 
were taken up and potted. When pruning, I found very little work for the 
knife. The shoots were so adjusted that I had, with few exceptions, only to 
shorten them : thinning out, in which consists so much of the mutilation above 
complained of, was unnecessary.” 
To this point especially would we direct the attention of amateurs, 
not doubting that great improvements are to be effected by following 
out the system herein detailed. In the chapters on Hybridising and 
raising Seedlings we find the following remarks :— 
“ It should be known, in choosing varieties for this purpose, that the least 
double kinds do not always perfect their seeds best. Such, upon less mature 
consideration, might appear to be the case, and has been asserted to be so ; which 
error must have arisen from the want of close observation. It does not depend 
so much on the degree of fulness in a Rose, as upon some other cause, to me 
altogether inexplicable, and not to be interpreted even by the acknowledged 
laws of hybridisation ; for some hybrids seed freely, whereas others are sterile, 
although of the same origin, and apparently similarly constituted. That the 
power of producing perfect seeds does not depend on the degree of fulness, may 
