18641869] BUD]- VARIATION 



To T. Rivers. Letter 199 



Down, Jan nth [1867?]. 



How rich and valuable a letter you have most kindly sent 

 me ! The case of Baronne Prevost^ with its different shoots, 

 foliage, spines, and flowers, will be grand to quote. I am 

 extremely glad to hear about the seedling moss-roses. That 

 case of a seedling like a Scotch rose, unless you are sure that 

 no Scotch rose grew near (and it is unlikely that you can 

 remember), must, one would think, have been a cross. 



I have little compunction for being so troublesome not 

 more than a grand Inquisitor has in torturing a heretic for 

 am I not doing a real good public service in screwing crumbs 

 of knowledge out of your wealth of information ? 



P.S. Since the above was written I have read your paper 

 in the Gardeners' CJironicle : it is admirable, and will, I know, 

 be a treasure to me. I did not at all know how strictly the 

 character of so many flowers is inherited. 



On my honour, when I began this note I had no thought 

 of troubling you with a question ; but you mention one point 

 so interesting, and which I have had occasion to notice, that 

 I must supplicate for a few more facts to quote on your 

 authority. You say that you have one or two seedling 

 peaches 2 approaching very nearly to thick-fleshed almonds 

 (I know about A. Knight and the Italian hybrid cases). 

 Now, did any almond grow near your mother peach ? But 

 especially I want to know whether you remember what shape 

 the stone was, whether flattened like that of an almond ; this, 

 botanically, seems the most important distinction. I earnestly 

 wish to quote this. Was the flesh at all sweet ? 



Forgive if you can. 



Have you kept these seedling peaches ? if you would give 

 me next summer a fruit, I want to have it engraved. 



1 See Variation under Domestication, Ed. II., Vol. I., p. 406. Mr. 

 Rivers had a new French rose with a delicate smooth stem, pale glaucous 

 leaves and striped flesh-coloured flowers ; on branches thus charac- 

 terised there appeared " the famous old rose called Baronne Prevost" 

 with its stout thorny stem and uniform rich-coloured double flowers. 



2 " On raising Peaches, Nectarines, and other Fruits from Seed." By 

 Thomas Rivers, Sawbridge worth. Gard. Chron., 1866, p. 731. 



