390 FLOWERS. Chap. X. 



modifications of structure besides those which are beautiful, a host 

 of curious varieties would certainly have been raised; and they 

 would probably have transmitted their characters so truly that the 

 cultivator would have felt aggrieved, as in the case of culinary 

 vegetables, if his whole bed had not presented a uniform appearance. 

 Florists have attended in some instances to the leaves of their plant, 

 and have thus produced the most elegant and symmetrical patterns 

 of white, red, and green, which, as in the case of the pelargonium, 

 are sometimes strictly inherited. 176 Any one who will habitually 

 examine highly-cultivated flowers in gardens and greenhouses will 

 observe numerous deviations in structure ; but most of these must 

 be ranked as mere monstrosities, and are only so far interesting as 

 showing how plastic the organisation becomes under high cultiva- 

 tion. From this point of view such works as Professor Moquin- 

 Tandon's ' Teratologic ' are highly instructive. 



Bases. — These flowers offer an instance of a number of forms 

 generally ranked as species, namely, R. centifoVa, galb'ca, alba, 

 damascena, spii/osissima, bracteata, indica, semper jlor ens, moschata, 

 &c, which have largely varied and been intercrossed. The genus 

 Eosa is a notoriously difficult one, and, though some of the above 

 forms are admitted by all botanists to be distinct species, others are 

 doubtful ; thus, with respect to the British forms, JBabington makes 

 seventeen, and Bentham only five species. The hybrids from some 

 of the most distinct forms — for instance, from R. indica, fertilised 

 by the pollen of R. centifolia — produce an abundance of seed ; I 

 state this on the authority of Mr. Bivers, 177 from whose work 1 have 

 drawn most of the following statements. As almost all the aboriginal 

 forms brought from different countries have been crossed and re- 

 crossed, it is no wonder that Targioni-Tozzetti, in speaking of the 

 common roses of the Italian gardens, remarks that " the native 

 country and precise form of the wild type of most of them are 

 involved in much uncertainty." 178 Nevertheless, Mr. Bivers in re- 

 ferring to R. indica (p. 68) says that the descendants of each group 

 may generally be recognized by a close observer. The same author 

 often speaks of roses as having been a little hybridised ; but it is 

 evident that in very many cases the differences due to variation 

 and to hybridisation can now only be conjecturally distinguished. 



The species have varied both by seed and by bud ; such modified 

 buds being often called by gardeners sports. In the following 

 chapter I shall fully discuss this latter subject, and shall show that 

 bud-variations can be propagated not only by grafting and budding, 

 but often by seed. Whenever a new rose appears with any 

 peculiar character, however produced, if it yields seed, Mr. Bivers 



176 Alph. de Candolle. 'Geograph. Horticulture,' 1861, p. 64. 



Bo*,,' p. 1083; 'Gardener's Chron.' 177 'Rose Amateur's Guide,' T. 



1861, p. 433. The inheritance of the Rivers, 1837, p. 21. 



white and golden zones in Pelargonium 178 'Journal Hort. Soc.,' vol. ix. f 



largely depends on the nature of the 1855, p. 182. 

 soil. See D. Beaton, in ' Journal of 



