I know that the Gardeners' Monthly would never with intention mislead its readers; permit me, therefore, to make some corrections of the statements in your June number on the Manetti rose.

Since the Manetti became known as a desirable stock on which to graft roses our firm has made use of them, importing or growing a considerable quantity each year. This June we will have 55,000 roses in flower that are on Manetti roots, and we have planted out for our July budding upwards of 90,000 Manetti stocks and 10,000 Grifferaie stocks. This is one-third of our entire stock of roses, and will show in what estimation we hold the Manetti.

There are many florists in this State, in New Jersey, Long Island and Massachusetts, who use (for forcing) plants from cuttings, only when budded ones are not to be had. There is a large number of amateur Rosarians who will have their plants, of certain kinds, worked on the Manetti stock, or who will not have them at all.

To say, then, that the use of this stock has been wholly abandoned shows you have been misinformed. The desirableness of its use remains open for discussion, but the fact of its large and continued use is easily proved and is not an open question.

Now, as to the qualities, good and bad, of the Manetti as a foster parent. Horticulturists do not find all desired qualities done up in one parcel; every variety of fruit or flower is lacking in some good feature to be found in another sort. So it is with the Manetti. It does sometimes (often, if you will) throw out suckers from the roots which, if undisturbed, ultimately choke the variety it has been budded with. This is certainly an objectionable feature, but it will not weigh much when placed in the balance and compared with the qualities which commend it for use. By budding roses on a stock like the Manetti or Grifferaie we propagate many varieties which cannot be grown from cuttings, at least not without great loss; such kinds are Baroness Rothschild, Abel Grand, Marguerite de St. Armande, Crested Moss, Gracilis, Persian Yellow, etc.; we also propagate varieties of somewhat feeble habit, like Horace Vernet, Louis Van Houtte, Marie Baumann, Xavier Olibo, etc. These sorts are among the most beautiful roses, but they need the vigor of growth which another stock can alone supply.

The Manetti is a very distinct rose, and the suckers it throws are easily told by any observant person from any sort in general cultivation. Most roses have five leaflets, though there area number of light-colored sorts with seven. The Manetti has seven leaflets, often nine, of deep green; the shoots and thorns are of reddish tinge; when once recognized it is ever afterwards easily distinguished.

The matter may be summed up thus : Persons who know nothing of roses should obtain varieties which are on their own roots, and be content with kinds like Jacqueminot, La Reine and Paul Ney-ron. Amateurs who are capable of discriminating may be safely trusted to plant budded roses of such kinds as are improved by being worked; the suckers of the Manetti are easily cut off and give very little annoyance to those who know roses.

In England there have always been some to oppose the use of a stock for roses, on account of the trouble the suckers would occasion ignorant planters, but there are now more budded plants in England than at any previous time. If we could keep off the bugs with as little labor as we expend in keeping off Manetti suckers, the culture of roses would be a very simple affair.

[Mr. E. is no doubt correct about the Manetti being in use in America for some years past; but the period we refer to as the time when they were abandoned goes back to twenty years ago at least. And perhaps we were not strictly correct in saying that the stock had entirely gone out of use, even at that time. It would be best to say that they were, about thirty years ago, in almost universal use and then came to be almost abandoned.

In other respects we can endorse what Mr. Ell-wanger says. It is unquestionable that many roses will do much better on the Manetti than on their own roots, and any one who knows that his roses are grafted on this stock, who knows how to tell the suckers from the stock and has the good sense to take them off as they appear, will never be sorry he has a grafted rose. It was not this, however, which rendered the Manetti stock unpopular, but that the majority of people who bought roses had not this knowledge and good sense. In short, the Manetti is a good thing for the intelligent grower and a poor thing for the rest. - Ed. G. M.]