HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



This is undoubtedly true in the abstract but it is when brought to 

 bear on concrete cases that it fails to fully satisfy. If by extreme feeding 

 is meant the culture given to roses for example by florists and gardeners 

 when forced under glass for winter flowering, the question arises why more 

 sports are not developed? When thousands of growers are forcing the same 

 variety, it is not always the one who is feeding his crop the heaviest that 

 finds it produces a sport. The fact, too, that a few varieties alone have 

 displayed sportive tendencies to the extent of producing new sorts, 

 strengthens the conviction that the cause lies in the blood. 



The rose Catherine Mermet has been the most prolific in sports of the 

 many which have been grown for cut flowers. Its greatest descendants 

 as sports are The Bride and Bridesmaid, the latter displacing the parent 

 entirely. If feeding was the prime cause, why did not many growers find 

 a "Bride" and a Bridesmaid? Catherine Mermet also produced Waban 

 and I think one or two other sports which have disappeared. Parti- 

 colored sports have appeared occasionally in The Bride and now a grower 

 has one beautifully striped white and pink, the latter being the Bridesmaid 

 color and largely predominating. 



Maman Cochet produced a white sport, and in this connection I would 

 say that when a neutral shade like pink is produced, it seems that the 

 combination which produced it carries with it the tendency at some time 

 to produce a white sport. The rose we know as American Beauty has 

 produced two pink sports, American Belle and Queen of Edgely and it is 

 not too much to expect that these if largely grown would emerge a white 

 sport. 



From the rose Safrano came the yellow sport Isabelle Sprunt and from 

 Perle des Jardins came Sunset, from the latter I believe came Lady 

 Dorothea, from Golden Gate came Ivory, from Bon Silene came the 

 stripped rose American Banner, which in addition to the change in flower 

 showed a marked change in foliage being decidedly rugose. The latter 

 characteristic is slowly disappearing under propogation, in fact has almost 

 vanished at the present time. Caprice, Striped La France and other striped 

 roses coming from neutral tinted sorts, coupled with the fact that the 

 other sports enumerated follow in the same line, are sufficient warrant 

 for the belief that the combination which resulted in the parent sorts 

 laid the foundation for the sports which resulted from them, and that the 

 manner of growth had no part in it as a prime cause. 



The sporting cycle in the Bouvardia is very interesting and in results it 

 exactly parallels the examples set forth relating to the rose. From B. 

 Hogarth a deep scarlet variety, issued B. Elegans a lighter colored form, and 

 from that issued B. Davidsonii a pure white. It is interesting to note that 

 two white sports originated at the same time, one in Greenville, now 

 Jersey City, N. J., with Mr. Vreeland and offered as B. Vreelandii, the 



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