And whatever the situation may be, they assume a decidedly improved appearance when grown in a frame or greenhouse. An unfavourable locality or soil should never deter the lover of Roses from entering on their cultivation; for such is the diversity of character of the varieties belonging to the genus, that some may be found suited to, or capable of flourishing in, the least desirable localities; and the soil may be improved, or dug out, and the beds re-filled with prepared soil. For the encouragement of those whose situation may be decidedly unfavourable, it may be stated, that a great part of the Roses grown at this establishment are sent into the neighbourhood of London and the large manufacturing towns in England and Scotland. And it is pleasing to see, in their perfect production there, how far the art of culture can be brought to triumph over circumstances. In such situations, the practice which seems to have been attended with the most marked success, is that of syringing the plants frequently with clean water, which frees the leaves of the impurities which settle on them. Thus, it will be seen, none need despair of securing a moderate share of success in, and of realizing the pleasures afforded by, the cultivation of this richly-varied flower.

We have said that soils are capable of improvement, and may suppose that every one has his garden under his own controul, so far as improvement goes. To this point let us now direct attention.

In the first place, if our soil be wet it should be drained. Roses will never flourish in a soil naturally wet. As few plants will, if a garden be of this nature, it would seem desirable, before attending to other improvements, to drain it wholly and thoroughly.

Let us suppose we have a piece of clayey undrained land, which is the best our limits contain, and on which we are about to form a Rosarium. We defer planting the Roses till spring, availing ourselves of the autumn and winter for the amelioration of the soil; unless, indeed, there has been an opportunity of working it during the previous winter and summer, when autumn planting is thought preferable. There is not, however, always an opportunity of doing this; and we will suppose it taken in hand in October, just after a crop has been removed from it. Our first object is to secure a perfect drainage. This may be done by digging trenches two and a half to three feet deep, at about five yards apart, and laying draining tiles in at the bottom. In digging the trenches, they may be cut sloping from eighteen inches at top to two inches at the bottom. We must find out the lowest ground, and secure a gentle fall from the higher ground, that the water may run away freely.

If we do not choose to lay drain-tiles in the trenches, bushes may be put there, or stones, brick-bats, clinkers from the furnaces, broken into moderate-sized pieces, or any description of rubble. These will accomplish the same end, if laid sufficiently deep, though not so perfectly, as the soil will find its way amongst them in course of time, and choke up the passages through which the water should find egress. Having laid the soil dry, the next object should be to expose it, as much (Div. I.)

f

as possible, to the fertilizing influences of the sun and air. To accomplish this, the ground should be dug one spit deep, or more; but instead of laying it level at the surface, let it be thrown up in ridges in the roughest manner possible. In this state it may lie till the depth of winter, fully exposed to the action of sun, air, rain, and frost. The surface of the ridges will gradually crumble down, and the soil become pulverized. Now for the next step. What description of soils or manures can be brought to bear upon it with the greatest prospect of improvement? Chalk, lime, peat, sand, and burnt earth will improve it; and stable manure, with any decayed vegetable substances, the refuse of the garden, may be added to advantage. And now is the time to apply these. First level the soil, and lay on the top a good dressing of any of the above soils that may be accessible, or thought most suitable. Having done this, in the next place trench the ground two spit deep, well mixing these foreign matters with the staple in the operation. The ground is laid level this time, and when finished, the places where the Roses are to be planted should be marked out, and the holes dug, the earth taken out being laid up in ridges round their sides. The holes should remain open till the time of planting, that the soil, placed in immediate contact with the roots, may become further mellowed. From the end of February till the end of March is a good time for spring planting, choosing an opportunity when the ground works well. But some gardens are so situated that it is not easy to drain them. A makeshift system may be adopted in such cases. The soil may be thrown out of the walks in the immediate vicinity of the plants, to a good depth; and loose stones, or rubble of any description, be placed at the bottom, covering with bushes, over which the soil may be restored. Among the substances mentioned above as calculated to improve wet or clayey soils, is burnt earth. Of its value in the improvement of such for Rose-culture I have been an eye-witness; and in a Letter published in the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1844 (p. 67), I gave an account of the results of its application to some Dwarf Roses. Subsequent experiments have increased my faith in it and as the burning of earth is considered by many to be a difficult process, I shall give a succinct account of the plan pursued here.

Earth may be burnt at any season of the year. It has been the custom here, for some years, on the decline of spring, when the operations of pruning, grafting, &c. are ended, instead of suffering the rough branches to lie about, presenting an untidy appearance, to collect them in a heap. A wall of turf, about three feet high, of a semi-circular form, is then built round them. The branches are set on fire, and when about half burnt down, seed-weeds, and such rubbish as collects in every garden and will not readily decompose, are thrown on the top, and earth is gradually cast up as the fire breaks through.

During the first two or three days great care is requisite to keep the pile on fire. Here is the point where many fail. They allow the flame to break through and expend itself before the heap is thoroughly kindled. Constant watching is necessary at this juncture. As the fire breaks through, a layer of bushes and weeds should be added, and then a layer of earth. Follow up this plan, and the fire

will spread through the whole heap; and any amount of earth may be burnt, by continually adding to those places where the fire appears the strongest. The soil burnt here is the stiffest loam that can be found within our limits, and which is of rather a clayey nature; also turf from the sides of ditches and ponds, in itself naturally sour and full of rank weeds.

Burnt earth has been found beneficial in every instance where applied. In black garden mould, rather wet, in which peach-trees were disposed to sucker and canker, despite of the use of various manures, two or three annual dressings of it appear so to have altered the nature of the soil, that they now grow clean, vigorous, and healthy, are free from suckers, and produce roots completely matted with fibre. The like success has attended its application to various other trees.

But to our Roses. In the summer of 1842 six beds of Tea-scented Roses were manured with the following substances: 1. bone-dust; 2. burnt earth; 3. nitrate of soda; 4. guano; 5. pigeon-dung; and, 6. stable manure, thoroughly decomposed. The soil in which they grew was an alluvial loam. The adjacent fields, which are of the same nature, grow large crops of wheat and potatoes. The particles of the soil run together after rain, presenting a smooth cemented surface; the soil, in dry weather, becoming hard and harsh. But for the results. The guano produced the earliest visible effects, causing a vigorous growth, which continued till late in the season; the foliage was large, and of the darkest green, but the flowers on this bed were not very abundant; the shoots did not ripen well, and were consequently much injured by frost during the succeeding winter. The bed, manured with burnt earth, next forced itself into notice: the plants kept up a steadier rate of growth, producing an abundance of clean, well-formed blossoms; the wood ripened well, and sustained little or no injury from the winter's frost. The results attendant on the use of the other manures were not remarkable: they had acted as gentle stimulants; the nitrate of soda and bone-dust least visibly so, although they were applied in the quantities usually recommended by the vendors.

The beds of Roses were all planted at the same date, and in the same soil; and there was no undue advantage given to any one kind of manure. The fertilizing influences of the burnt earth were no doubt due partly to its drying and opening the soil, thus rendering it more permeable to air; and partly to the power it is said to possess of fixing the ammonia conveyed to the soil by rain. But further, earth is reduced, by burning, to its inorganic constituents, and thus becomes a concentrated inorganic manure, from which many soils benefit largely; and the ashes of the wood, and other substances used in burning, although of small amount, would add to its value under this point of view. A portion of the earth comes from the heap red and hard, and a portion black or dark brown. The latter, which may be more correctly called charred earth, is highly beneficial to most soils. I think burnt and charred earth the best manure that can be applied to wet or adhesive soils, and would advise all who cultivate such to use it. Peat soils, although not of the best kind for Roses, are found to grow them tolerably well. For the improvement of such, if wet, the first effort should

be to drain them. After this, stiff loam, or pulverized clay and burnt earth, may be brought upon the surface, digging two spit deep, and well mixing the foreign substances with the natural soil, as advised in the improvement of clay soils.

The worst soils for Roses are those of a sandy or gravelly nature. In such they often suffer fearfully from the drought of summer, scorching up and dying. Soils of this kind are sometimes bad beyond remedy. The best plan to pursue under such circumstances, is, to remove the soil to the depth of about twenty inches, as the beds are marked out, and fill up again with prepared soil. Twothirds loam-the turf from a pasture, if attainable-and one-third decomposed stable manure will make a good mixture. If a strong loam is within reach, choose such in preference to others; and if thought too adhesive, a little burnt earth or sand may be mixed with it. A good kind of manure for mixing with the loam is the remains of a hot-bed, which have lain by for a year and become decomposed. Opoix, a French apothecary, whom we have previously quoted, attributes the superiority of the Roses grown for medicinal purposes, in the neighbourhood of Provins, to peculiar properties of the soil, which contains iron in considerable quantity. We are told that the selection of inorganic manures for plants may be fixed upon by an examination of the composition of their ashes.* We know, by the research of chemists, that the petals of the ROSA GALLICA contain oxide of iron; and I have long thought that the iron which abounds in the soil of one of the nurseries here is an ingredient of importance in the culture of Roses. I would not say that it is indispensable, but beneficial.

On turning up the soil, its ferruginous nature is in places distinctly seen. In an undrained field adjoining the Nursery the water frequently collects on the surface in the form of a thick brown liquid, like so much rust, which is covered here and there with a film, on which the sky is distinctly mirrored. When the soil in this nursery is hoed or forked, the rapid increase of growth of vegetation is striking beyond measure. The practice is known to promote growth in all soils; but the extent to which it does so here, is, I think, due to the oxygen of the air changing the iron contained in the soil from a substance pernicious to vegetable life, into one favourable to its development.

We have hitherto been speaking of the improvement of soils preparatory to the formation of the Rosarium, or beds of Roses. But it is often desirable to improve the soil in beds already formed, and which probably have existed as such for a number of years. This is usually done by the addition of animal or vegetable manures, which are very good so far as they go, but are not in every case all that is required. Roses increase in bulk every year, and draw inorganic as well as organic matter from the soil. Although a portion of this may be returned by the fall of the leaf in autumn, and by the manures employed, yet a great deal is deposited in the branches and stem: and when we consider what a quantity of branches we cut from some Roses, and carry away every pruning-season, it will appear reasonable that we may, in the

* Liebig.

course of years, impoverish the soil as regards its inorganic constituents, and yet leave it rich in vegetable matter. Thus, we think, every two or three years a dressing of chalk, lime, soot, or like substances, would prove highly beneficial to the beds of the Rosarium.

But let it be remembered, that if the soil is wet manures are of little value : often, indeed, they sour in the soil, and are worse than useless. In all such cases, then, the first effort must be to lay the soil dry. After this, add such manures as the character of the soil may point out as likely to prove most beneficial. Animal and vegetable manures of all kinds may be used, but not in a fresh state; they should be well pulverised: for Roses, though delighting in a rich soil, dislike green manures more than most plants. In heavy soils a good dressing of chalk, peat, burnt earth, or sand may be used; not to the preclusion of, but in addition to, the animal or vegetable manures. In light soils, especially such as are of a gravelly or sandy nature, stiff loam may be applied to advantage. These substances may be thrown on the surface of the beds with the usual manures, and forked in at the same time.

We would remark here that stable manure, which is excellent in most cases, and the kind in general use for Roses, is not of the best description for light soils. Its tendency is to render them still lighter; and if it can be dispensed with, we think it desirable to do so. Manures should be applied here in a more concentrated form. Cow-dung is excellent, especially for the Tea-scented Roses; and pigeon-dung, rabbit-dung, and night-soil, are all great improvers of light soils. The unpleasantness attending the preparation and use of night-soil may in a great measure be done away with by pursuing the following plan. A basin, or reservoir, should be formed on the ground, to hold a given quantity. In the bottom of this, loam may be thrown, heavy or light, turfy or not, as may be at our command, or whichever is thought best suited to the character of the soil we intend to manure. Upon this the night-soil is lowered from the cart, and a sufficient quantity of loam thrown in to absorb the whole. The heap should then be covered over closely with a layer of earth, about a foot thick, and remain closed for about six months. It may then be broken up, more or less, according to its state, mixing dry soil, or ashes, or burnt earth with it in the operation, and casting it up in ridges. About a month afterwards it may be turned over again, that the night-soil may be well mixed with the loam. In spring or autumn it may be carried to the places where required, and forked in as other manures; or it may be scattered over the beds immediately after they are forked in spring, when it will be washed down by the rains. We cannot conceive of any description of manure to surpass this, applied in the latter manner, to Roses on light soils. By its use, we administer at the same time a cool and rich fertilizer, and a substance calculated to be of permanent benefit to the soil.

It may be thought that guano should be a good manure for Roses on cold and poor soils. It probably might prove so if used sparingly, and in conjunction with vegetable manures. I do not, however, think guano the best thing for Roses in