a throng, a joint stock company, composed of
as many individuals as there are buds on its
trunk, branches, and twigs. What most
concerns us here, is, that buds enjoy a vitality of
their own, which is more or less independent
of the rest. In cold wet climates, certain
plants being unable to flower to any useful
purpose, revenge themselves and have their
own way in the end, by throwing off living
buds, which take root and settle themselves
in the world with the utmost facility. Such
plants are styled viviparous, or plants which
bring forth their young alive. There are
even leaves whose fecundity of constitution
engenders a crowd of little budlings round
their outside edge. Unless the practice of
budding were extensively employed, the
supply of choice roses could not meet the
demand.

New varieties of roses (with a few rare
exceptions) originate from seed. Suppose
you have raised an invaluable novelty, like
the Rose du Roi, or my own Maria. Your
plant is, at first, unique ; only a single specimen
exists in the world. How to propagate
it, distribute it, bring it into the market, and
make money of it ? Its seed, supposing any
attainable, would probably produce offspring
inferior to itself. Cuttings are a tardy and
limited means of multiplication ; besides,
several subsections of the genus Rose strike
root, as cuttings, with difficulty. Layering is
a still slower process, and often not a bit
more certain. Budding accomplishes all we
can desire.

It has been discovered experimentally, that
the buds of shrubs and trees, if skilfully and
surgically inoculated upon other shrubs and
trees nearly related to themselves — that is
species belonging to the same genus — will
grow and thrive. In a few cases, the faculty
is extended a little more widely ; thus, a lilac
scion, grafted on an ash-stock, will live just a
little while,— a summer or two. But the
nearer the relationship, the greater the
success ; but even then, vegetable caprice has
often to be contended with. For instance,
many pears do well on quince stocks, others
do not do well ; and there is no knowing,
except empirically, what the exact result
will be. Therefore, if any gardener tells
you gravely that he has budded a rose on
a black-currant bush, or grafted a white-
currant scion on a red-cabbage stump, look
him full in the face ; do not laugh, if you can
help it ; but set him down in your private
memorandum-book as, — I will not here say
what.

Now though, theoretically, any one species
of rose may be budded upon another, this
general rule will scarcely be carried out in
practice ; because common sense would
prevent your budding a vigorous species on a
weakly one, or a hardy species on a tender
one. There are families of roses — the tea-
scented, for example— which are killed by
any but our mildest winters, and must be
treated almost as greenhouse plants. For
general purposes, the best stocks are
furnished by the dog rose (Rosa-canina). Choose
such as have grown in exposed situations,
and have well-ripened wood, in preference to
the green and immature, though pretty stems,
that have been drawn up lank, under the
shelter of trees. The sweetbriar is not
sufficiently hardy. Extra robust and tall stocks
may be obtained from the Highland rose,
which grows in the valleys of the Grampian
hills. If you want to cover a wall with a
climbing rose on which to bud a number of
varieties, the crimson Boursault will answer
satisfactorily, and all the better that it is a
thornless species. Beginners are apt to be
too fond of over-tall standards; but experience
will tame down their lofty ambition to
from two feet to two and a-half.

You will have remarked the beautiful
effect of looking down upon a valley or a
forest from the commanding eminence of a
mountain side. Remember this principle
when you are planting the stocks that are to
form your future rose-parterre. Standard
roses, once budded, grow but little, if at all,
in height. They increase in thickness ; and
it is curious that in that respect the growth
of the stem is subordinate to that of the head;
that is, a vigorous head will form a corpulent
stem, while under a puny head the body will
remain puny,— an apt lesson for administrations
and governments in general.

Wild rose-stocks are now an article of
commerce. By giving an order to proper persons
you may obtain a supply to any reasonable
amount. The nearer home they are found,
and the sooner they are replanted in your
nursery, the better. November is the month
of months for the purpose. In the early
dawn of rose-growing in England, you could
not get what you wanted through such regular
channels as now ; but what you did get
were finer stocks, in consequence of their
being less sought after. I had an agent in
my service who was an enthusiast. On being
shown a collection of standard roses in splendid
bloom, he instantly caught the idea, and
impatiently longed for the arrival of autumn,
to be let slip to scour the country. He
seldom brought in large quantities at once—
nor did I want them ; but what he did bring
were magnificent fellows, such recruits as are
not easy to enlist at present. One evening
he came to me out of breath, but radiant with
triumph. From a small bundle of clean,
well-rooted dog-roses, he selected one, and
waved it in the air, as a theatrical fairy
waves her wand. " This, sir," he said, "cost
me three whole days and part of a night ;
but I was determined you should have it. I
had known of it all summer long, in a retired
corner of Squire Preservem's park, and I had
no need to tie a knot in my handkerchief, to
bear it in mind. But the other day they
warned me off the land ; they thought I must
be a poacher. They wouldn't believe me,