March 17, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



319 



similarity, with many practically identical species, 

 which must have been derived from the same ancestral 

 plants. This connection was thousands of years ago. 

 Since that time, these many species have remained prac- 

 tically stationary and unchanged. Likewise the high 

 desert vegetation of eastern South America has numer- 

 ous species in common with that of western Africa. Un- 

 common species could not be carried from one continent 

 to the other by winds, birds, or ocean currents, across 

 the present expanse of water, in many cases, as Engler 

 has shown. Only by some connecting land mass with 

 high desert areas could these species have got from one 

 place to the other ; and such a road can not have existed 

 in recent times. Hence the species which are alike on 

 both sides of the Atlantic must have remained practi- 

 cally in their present form for long ages. 



I think the general conclusion must be that there is 

 no universal tendency to improvement, as an inherent 

 quality of life itself. 



We must take Mr. Burbank's phrases quoted by Mr. 

 White in the issue of 3d March — "the upward, out- 

 ward and onward movement of life," "life forces in 

 their march," "life forces compared to a river pressing 

 forward" — not as the pronouncement of accurate and 

 wide study but rather as the delightfully exuberant 

 faith of one who is at the same time a doer of things 

 and a poet who attributes his own nature to the realm 

 of plants which he loves. 



Such are some of the broader aspects of the question. 

 The more practical side of it concerns the cultivation 

 of improved races of plants. If these races have this 

 rise and fall, like the natural species described by Hyatt, 

 then it is useless to seek to check the retreat of those 

 which seem to be universally going down, as some as- 

 sert to be the case with various potatoes, apples, etc. 

 The study of constitutional deterioration would seem to 

 be important. 



Besides seed-selection and cultivation, two possible 

 factors of deterioration that might well be discussed by 

 experienced growers, are (1) vegetative selection and 

 (2) the effect of the treatment of the parent plant on 

 the character of the seedlings derived from that plant. 

 As regards the latter factor, it is supposable that with 

 some plants, the kind of cultivation which promotes 

 good crops may, when long continued, weaken the seed. 

 In such a case stock-plants for seed would have to be 

 cultivated in a manner different from that which suits 

 the set designed for yield. Has it been observed that 

 exceptional vegetative vigor and yield in individuals of 

 one generation, induced by high cultivation, is to the 

 hurt of the following generation? Accurate observa- 

 tions bearing on any side of the subject, the effect of 

 cultivation upon the character of seed and the constitu- 

 tion of resulting seedlings, will be of great theoretical, 

 perhaps also large practical, value. 



Rose Schneewittchen 



The Polyantha roses are becoming more popular in 

 this country, as they deserve to be. We have been run- 

 ning too exclusively to American Beauties and other 

 long stemmed hot-house varieties. Not but what long- 

 stemmed mses are good, but so are other kinds. 



Amongst the various named varieties in this class 

 Schneewittchen is one of the daintiest I have ever seen. 

 I saw this first at a National Rose Show in London a 

 few years ago and got some plants of it from Mr. Bun- 

 yard. We have grown it at Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College and the photograph is from a plant in our 

 grounds. The photograph speaks for itself. It shows 

 a rose of uncommon beauty and one which the 

 amateur will be delighted to cultivate. The remark- 

 able ease with which these roses are grown, very prop- 

 erly adds to their popularity. 



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