96 The Journal 
mentals, by means of hybridization. 
No less than five of the ten medals so 
far awarded have been given in recog- 
nition of achievement in the produc- 
tion of new plant products. 
The award of the medal in 1919 was 
made to Dr. Walter Van Fleet of the 
United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, Washington, D. C., “for advance 
in the hybridization of garden plants, 
especially of the rose.’ The name 
“Van Fleet” is synonymous with meri- 
torious climbing roses of American 
origin. In the work of producing 
roses, Dr. Van Fleet has not been sat- 
isfied with a plant that produced a 
flower of the quality, size and color 
desired; the production was not com- 
plete or satisfactory from his point of 
view unless the plant possessed a high 
degree of vigor, hardiness, resistance 
to disease and abundant bloom. Jn 
Silver Moon, Dr. W. Van Fleet, Ameri- 
can Pillar, Magnafrano, Rugosa Mag- 
nifica, Birdie Blye and Bess Lovett 
these characteristics are strikingly mani- 
fested. 
But the crowning achievement . in 
the production of roses is yet to be 
introduced to the American public. 
This we believe will be accredited to 
Dr. Van Fleet when his new Multiflora 
Rugosa is given to rose lovers who 
find themselves situated in territory 
where native wild roses once carpeted 
of Heredity 
the earth with a glory of bloom almost 
beyond comprehension in its. beauty 
and abundance, but where the horticul- 
tural varieties of Europe and the 
eastern United States languish and die. 
In the great inland empire of the 
United States, frequently designated 
the “Great Plains,” these new children 
of the hardy north European rugose 
promise to live, flourish and once more 
restore to the prairie the blush of the 
rose which it wore as a crown of glory 
each spring before the advent of the 
plow. These new forms are notable 
not only for their flowers but because 
they are, when not in bloom, shrubs of 
attractive form and foliage. 
No contribution of new plant forms 
to ornamental horticulture has added 
more than these new creations promise. 
They are ornamental shrubs with pleas- 
ing habit, abundant, glossy, attractive 
foliage of the rugosa type, and a wealth 
of bloom followed by large ornamental 
heps. The production of these rose 
shrubs is the tangible expression of a 
cherished horticultural ideal, and dem- 
onstrates dominance of mind over 
matter. 
The awarding of the George Robert 
White Medal of Honor to Dr. Van 
Fleet is the placing of an honor well 
deserved. May he live to achieve a 
more complete fulfillment of his ideals! 
The Birth Rate in Mixed Marriages 
An increased birth rate in marriages 
between Jews and Lutheran Germans 
in Hamburg is described by R. E. May 
(Ztschft. f, Sexualwissenschaft, April, 
1919). Taking several hundred mar- 
riages of each class, contracted in Ham- 
burg in 1900, he found the following 
results in the birth records of 1901 and 
1902: Both partners Jewish, 9.0 births 
per 100 marriages; both partners Lu- 
therans, 11.7; husband Jewish, 14.0; 
wife Jewish, 19.6. 
It is of course questionable whether 
the numbers involved are large enough 
to have any real significance in relation 
to fecundity. Professor May thinks 
they are and that the explanation is 
economic, rather than biological, the 
mixed marriages in his opinion repre- 
senting cases where money was an im- 
portant factor, and these households 
therefore being better able to afford 
children. 
