PROPAGATION OF ROSE. 
51 
Layers of seme roses strike almost immediately ; a. d from this 
facility, it is a common practice to lay them all over a bed by pegging 
down the branches on the surface, at small distances, and thus cover 
a whole space, which have rooted at almost every joint. The flowers, 
in such cases, are very strong; but a bush thus treated, and every 
branch layered, would cut up into an immense number of plants. 
Propagation "by Budding on Brier3. 
We marry 
A gentle scion on the wildest stock, 
And make conceive a bark of baser kind 
By bud of nobler race ; this is art 
Which does mend nature—change it rotting ; but 
The art itself is nature. Shakspbabb. 
There is no process in the art of Practical Gardening more interest¬ 
ing, nor the fruits of which are more gratifying to an amateur, than 
budding. The theory is this: At the base of the leaf is a small bud, 
which, after the leaf falls away from it, becomes prominent, and event¬ 
ually, if left on the tree, makes a branch. By taking a leaf off with 
part of the -bark, this incipient bud comes with it, and by inserting 
this bark under the bark of another rose tree, say one of these com¬ 
mon briers, it unites as if it were originally a part of the brier itself; 
but the bud retains all the character of the one it came from, and is 
not changed in the smallest degree by the transfer from its own to 
another stock. This is the fact upon which all propagation by bud¬ 
ding is founded; and, therefore, we l ave two leading points to consider 
in setting about this operation. 
First, we must have the green bark of the stock, into which the 
buds are to be inserted, rise easily, which it does all the while the 
branch is green and growing; and, secondly, we must wait until the 
bud, small and almost imperceptible as it is at the base of the leaf, is 
old enough to be removed with safety. In a general way, the buds 
of Summer Roses are not ready till nearly mid-summer, and the bark 
will not easily rise from the wood of the stock much after that. The 
budding season may, however, be called from the middle of June to 
the middle of August, and not very much longer. What is meant b}^ 
the bark easily rising is, easily leaving the wood, so that it would be 
easy to peel a branch by stripping the bark off. 
