220 THE ROSE. 
also known to have produced a great many 
of our most beautiful roses by manual fertili- 
zation; but as no record has been kept of the 
varieties used for the purpose, the result of 
their work is of no use to the hybridizer of 
this day further than to afford proof that de- 
finite results can better be obtained from 
artificial than from natural crosses. Our aim 
should be to control and assist nature, as far 
as possible, in her tendency toward variation. 
There has been so much carelessness, not 
to say ignorance, with regard to the parentage 
of the various varieties of roses, that I do not 
think it would be possible to name fifty kinds 
and give the parentage on both sides. For 
the past twenty-five years, nature has been 
so lavish in producing variations of great 
beauty, that those who have raised new roses 
have been content to gather the heps and 
sow the seed, depending on natural crosses 
to produce new and desirable kinds. Not 
only have they thus entirely relied on nature 
to accomplish what they wished; they have 
not even taken the pains, except in few in- 
stances, to separate the seed of one variety 
from that of another, but have sowed them 
allpromiscuously. Totrace the peculiarities 
of each variety, learning just what influence 
each parent had in forming the qualities of 
