Culture.

This rose is not hardy enough to bear exposure in wet and cold soils: it will perhaps grow for a time, but seldom bloom well. A warm and dry elevated border or a south wall will suit it admirably but to see this very curious rose bloom in perfection, bud it on short stems of the Dog Rose, and treat it exactly as recommended for the Tea-scented Roses; it will then bloom freely, either in pots or in the flower-borders, and form delightful little plants, quite unique in their character and appearance.

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PART III.

GENERAL CULTURE AND PROPAGATION OF ROSES.

TREATMENT OF THE SEED, SOWING, &c.

The hips of all the varieties of roses will in general be fully ripe by the beginning of November; they should then be gathered and kept entire, in a flower-pot filled with dry sand, carefully guarded from mice; in February, or by the first week in March, they must be broken to pieces with the fingers, and sown in flower-pots, such as are generally used for sowing seeds in, called "seed-pans," but for rose seeds they should not be too shallow; nine inches in depth will be enough; these should be nearly, but not quite, filled with a rich compost of rotten manure and sandy loam or peat; the seeds may be covered, to the depth of about half an inch, with the same compost; a piece of kiln wire must then be placed over the pot, fitting closely at the rim, so as to prevent the ingress of mice, which are passionately fond of rose seeds; there must be space enough

between the wire and the mould for the young plants to come up; half an inch will probably be found enough; the pots of seed must never be placed under glass, but kept constantly in the open air, in a full sunny exposure, as the wire will shade the mould, and prevent its drying. Water should be given occasionally in dry weather; the young plants will perhaps make their appearance in April or May, but very often the seed does not vegetate till the second spring. When they have made their "rough leaves," that is, when they have three or four leaves, exclusive of their seed 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 be very hot and dry, they may be covered with a hand-glass 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 to take buds from. Those that have done so may be cut down, and one or two strong stocks budded with each; these will, the following summer, make vigorous shoots, and the summer following, if left unpruned, to a certainty they will produce flowers. This is the only method to ensure seedling roses flowering the third year; many will do so that are not budded, but very often the superior varieties are shy bloomers on

their own roots, till age and careful culture give them strength.

It may be mentioned here, as treatment ap-. plicable to all seed-bearing roses, that when it is desirable the qualities of a favourite rose should preponderate, the petals of the flower to be fertilised must be opened gently with the fingers*

*It requires some watchfulness to do this at the proper time: if too soon, the petals will be injured in forcing them open; and in hot weather in July, if delayed only an hour or two, the anthers will be found to have shed their pollen. To ascertain precisely when the pollen is in a fit state for transmission, a few of the anthers should be gently pressed with the finger and thumb; if the yellow dust adheres to them the operation may be performed; it requires close examination and some practice to know when the flower to be operated upon is in a fit state to receive the pollen; as a general rule, the flowers ought to be in the same state of expansion, or, in other words, about the same age. It is only in cases where it is wished for the qualities of a particular rose to predominate, that the removal of the anthers of the rose to be fertilised is necessary: thus, if a yellow climbing rose is desired by the union of the Yellow Briar with the Ayrshire, every anther should be removed from the latter, so that it is fertilised solely with the pollen of the former. In some cases, where it is desirable to have the qualities of both parents in an equal degree, the removal of the anthers need not take place; thus, I have found by removing them from the Luxembourg Moss, and fertilising that rose with a dark variety of Rosa Gallica, that the features of the Moss Rose are totally lost in its offspring, and they become nearly pure varieties of Rosa Gallica ; but if the anthers of the Moss Rose are left untouched, and it is fertilised with Rosa Gallica, interesting hybrids are the result, more or less mossy; this seems to make superfetation very probable; yet Dr. Lindley in "Theory of Horticulture," page 332., "thinks it is not very likely to occur."

a flower that will expand in the morning should be opened the afternoon or evening previous, and the anthers all removed with a pair of pointed scissors; the following morning when this flower is fully expanded it must be fertilised with a flower of some variety, of which it is desired to have seedlings partaking largely of its qualities. To exemplify this, we will suppose that a climbing Moss Rose with red or crimson flowers is wished for the flowers of the Blush Ayrshire, which bears seed abundantly, may be selected, and before expansion the anthers removed; the following morning, or as soon after the operation as these flowers open, they should be fertilised with those of the Luxembourg Moss; if the operation succeed, seed will be procured, from which the probability is, that a climbing rose will be produced with the habit and flowers of the Moss Rose, or at least an approximation to them; and as these hybrids often bear seed freely, by repeating the process with them, the at present apparent remote chance of getting a climbing Moss Rose may be brought very near.

I mention the union of the Moss and Ayrshire Rose by way of illustration, and merely to point out to the amateur how extensive and how interesting a field of operations is open in this way. I ought to give a fact that has occurred in my own experience, which will tell better with the sceptical than a thousand anticipations. About