136 PARSONS ON THE ROSE. 



riety ; but if one of the Summer roses, not until the next 

 season. The third spring let every branch be cut down 

 to three or four eyes, when it will more fully develop its 

 character, and will often continue improving until its fifth 

 or sixth year. 



The first winter, the young plants will require protec- 

 tion from the cold by some kind of litter, and the Bengal, 

 Tea, and ISToisette varieties will always need it during the 

 winter. Where there are any plants of these latter, whose 

 habit and appearance promise something excellent, they 

 can be potted on the approach of winter, kept in a cool 

 temperature, free from frost, and replanted in the spring. 



When it is desired that the young plant should possess 

 the properties of two well-known flowers, resort is had to 

 artificial impregnation. 



Although the existence of sexuality in plants appears 

 to have been known to the ancients, and is mentioned not 

 only by Pliny, Claudian, and Theophrastus, but also by 

 Ebu-Alwan, in a work on agriculture written originally in 

 Chaldaic ; yet it does not seem to have been generally ad- 

 mitted by botanists, until announced by Linnaeus in 1731. 

 From this time the possibility of the existence of hybrid 

 plants was admitted, and Linnasus, with many subsequent 

 authors, published observations tending to show that, even 

 in the natural state, new species were formed by two dif- 

 ferent plants, the pistil of one having been fecundated by 

 the stamens of the other. This impregnation has been 

 artificially applied, by modern cultivators, to the produc- 

 tion of new varieties of fruits and flowers. With the 

 Geranium, Fuchsia, PsBony, Pansy, and other flowers, it 

 has produced remarkable results. The mode of impreg- 

 nating the Rose artificially has been so little practiced 

 with us, and has been so well described by Rivers, that 

 we prefer detailing the process in his own words : 



" When it is desirable the qualities of a favorite rose 

 should preponderate, the petals of the flower to be fertil- 



