154 PLANTS AND MAN 
which may be blue or purple or white. Flowers offer 
great opportunities, therefore, to the gardener, and by 
selecting on the one hand and hybridizing on the 
other every known tint has been reproduced in some 
blossom. Adding to this the variability in size and 
shape of petals, and the tendency to “doubling,” the 
flower in the hands of skilful cultivators has been 
altered almost beyond recognition. Take the Roses, 
for example, with their infinite variety of form and 
colour. The bulk of them are derived from a dozen 
wild species, possessing comparatively small single 
flowers, white, yellow, or red—Rosa_ centifolia, 
damascena, gallica (the source of the older Roses), 
indica, moschata, odorata, rugosa, Wichureiana, with 
our native arvensis and spinosissima. By selecting 
for colour, shape, and “ doubleness,” both from the 
species themselves and from the offspring produced 
by hybridizing one of these with another, what a 
wealth of beauty has been developed! More than any 
other flowers, the Roses are the crown and glory of 
the gardener’s art. Well has the Rose been called the 
Queen of Flowers; but it owes its royal prerogative to 
man. Nature provided blossoms—elegant, but of no 
special promise—and a tendency to vary, of priceless 
value; human skill and industry have done the rest. 
