1883.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



H9 



Centaurea Americana. — At first sight one would 

 hardly recognize in this tall plant, with its large, 

 showy flowers, a sister of the Bachelor's Button of 

 the garden. It is a fine plant, but rarely met with 

 in this county. 



Castillija coccinea (Painted Cup). — This is a 

 widely disseminated plant, though not abundant 

 anywhere. I have seen it in two or three places 

 only in this county. It is a unique and beautiful 

 plant. 



Euphorbia margiiiata. — Snow on the Mountain 

 of the gardens is common further west, but is sel- 

 dom seen in this locality. It is one of our few 

 native plants, the beauty of whose foliage renders 

 them objects of attraction. 



Cooperia Drummondii. — It is a little strange that 

 this pretty Texas member of the amaryllis family 

 should have moved its habitat to Southern Kansas. 

 I found, perhaps, a dozen individuals of the species 

 growing in one location only, in a slight depression, 

 on high table land. 



Camptosorus rhizophyllus (Walking Fern). — 

 This unique and beautiful fern, if not rare, is so fas- 

 tidious in its choice of a home that it is abundant 

 in a few localities only. I found it covering a few 

 limestone rocks in a cold, damp place where the 

 sun never reaches, a forest being on one side, and 

 on the other a perpendicular wall of rock fifty or 

 sixty feet high. 



THE LAW OF VARIABILITY. 



BY JEAN SISLEY, MONPLAISIR, LYONS, FRANCE. 



It is admitted by nearly all who have studied 

 the laws which govern the vegetable and animal 

 kingdom that variability is the universal rule. If 

 I say nearly, it is because a very eminent horticul- 

 tural writer, whom I esteem, has written recently 

 that reproduction is the rule and variation an 

 exception. But in support of his opinion he has 

 not quoted one example, nor explained why there 

 are not two grains of sand of the same size or the 

 same weight ; why there are never two leaves of 

 the same tree identically alike, nor two seeds of the 

 same pod producing two plants in every respect 

 the same ; why we never meet two twins resem- 

 bling perfectly. Time and reflection, and particu- 

 larly observation, will, it is to be hoped, settle this 

 question for the interest of science and progress. 



I have been myself for a long while in error. I 

 attributed the variations obtained from seed to the 

 interference of insects, and thought that when 

 rambling in flowers they carried the pollen from 

 one variety to another, and thus produced cross- 



ings. But my friend Carriere, editor of the Revue 

 Horiicole, of Paris, rnade me perceive my mistake 

 by calling my attention to the natural law of vari- 

 ation. 



I felt very much obliged, but as a free thinker in 

 all matters, and believing only what is demonstrated 

 by irrefragable facts, I searched for proofs and ad- 

 dicted myself particularly to study roses, and I 

 soon perceived that nearly always the natural 

 fecundation takes place before the expansion of 

 the flower buds, and that consequently the inter- 

 vention of insects was of no avail. What makes 

 me desirous to call the attention of rose grow- 

 ers to this subject is, that notwithstanding its 

 evidence, the law of variability is not generally 

 perceived, principally in horticulture, and because 

 it is in the vegetable kingdom, that there is the 

 largest field for study. Is it not variation that 

 produces all the pleasures in expectation by the 

 hopes we entertain of obtaining something new by 

 sowing ? 



It is chiefly in the rose tribe that variation has, 

 without our intervention, given us so much delight, 

 by the numerous and beautiful varieties obtained 

 since the beginning of this century. 



This natural result has induced some rosarians, 

 amongst which we must cite Henry Bennett, 

 to apply themselves to artificial fecundation, an art 

 which is yet in its infancy, and often ill-practiced, 

 but which will certainly lead to marvels, by judi- 

 cious selections. A natural fact of variability 

 which has often been produced, and generally 

 passed unnoticed, is dimorphism, commonly called 

 sport or accident. Why a sport ? Why an acci- 

 dent ? Because the law which has produced them 

 is yet unknown. 



Some say that those variations are produced by 

 an unhealthy state, others by over-culture. I sus- 

 pect them all to be in error, and tell them "seek 

 and you will find." 



In the rose tribe some very remarkable sports 

 have sprung up recently — Mabel Morrison, White 

 Baroness and Merville de Lyon, all three with 

 white flowers, issued from Baronne de Rothschild, 

 which has pink flowers. 



Tea American Banner, with striped flowers, 

 issued from Tea Bon Silene, and very different in 

 habit from the type; and lately Peter Henderson 

 wrote to me that he had found a dimorphism of 

 Tea Perle des Jardins with the color of Tea Mad- 

 ame Falcot; and it is very likely that very often 

 such reports have occurred without being noticed, 

 and will occur again ; and I therefore engage (and 

 it is why I write these lines) all the rosarians, and 



