THE ROSE GARDEN. 85 



produced a brilliant-coloured Hybrid Perpetual, and a numerous progeny of 

 Great Western retain exactly the foliage and habit of that variety. As the 

 latter have not flowered, it has yet to be seen whether they will vary in this re- 

 spect. Tea Goubault crossed with Bourbon Souchet has produced two Summer 

 Roses, the one having the characters of the Hybrid Chinese, the other those of 

 the Hybrid Bourbon. 



My friend M. Laffay once told me that he raised many of his splendid Hybrid 

 Perpetual Roses from Athelin and Celine (Hybrid Bourbons), crossing them 

 with the free-flowering varieties of Damask Perpetual and Bourbon. A few years 

 since he took up a new idea — that of obtaining Hybrid Moss and Perpetual 

 Moss Roses by crossing the Moss with the Hybrid Bourbon and Damask 

 Perpetual. He has since raised several seedlings, some Perpetual Moss and 

 some Hybrid Moss, the latter possessing the foliage and vigour of the Hybrid 

 Bourbon Roses. The Princess Adelaide (Moss) was obtained in this manner. 

 On the success of these and the like unions he is very sanguine, and says, 

 much as he has done with Roses, he anticipates doing far more, and raising up 

 such hybridizations and novelties as shall astonish the floral world. As he 

 has already done so much, his intentions and prophecies deserve our respect. 

 But why should France labour alone in this field? why should she have all the 

 fame, reap all the profit ? Cannot we assist her ? Time is short. M. Laffay has 

 already past the meridian of life, and the raising of seedling Roses is a tedious 

 operation. 



If the Hybrid Bourbons crossed with the Moss produce perfect seeds, we 

 may presume that the intermixing of the pollen grains of other species will be pro- 

 ductive of like results. This, it will be seen, demolishes the idea of the necessity of 

 restricting ourselves to the crossing of individuals of the same group. Not only 

 may we choose the parents from different groups, but from different species. 

 Where, indeed, is the line of demarcation ? There appears no limit to the field of 

 labour. We have to prove by actual experiment what can and what cannot be 

 done. 



It should be known, in choosing varieties for this purpose, that the least double 

 kinds do not always perfect their seeds best. Such, upon less mature consideration, 

 might appear to be the case, and has been asserted to be so, which error must have 

 arisen from the want of close observation. It does not depend so much on the 

 degree of fulness in a Rose, as upon some other cause to me altogether inexpli- 

 cable, and not to be interpreted even by the acknowledged laws of the effects of 

 hybridization ; for some Hybrids seed freely, whereas others are sterile, although 

 of the same origin and apparently similarly constituted. That the power of pro- 

 ducing perfect seeds does not depend on the degree of fulness, may be established 

 by the fact, that Pourpre fafait, a mongrel-bred Bourbon Rose, and others, too full to 

 open their flowers at all times, ripen their seeds, although very many semi-double 

 varieties rarely form a seed-pod. That it does not depend on their being Hybrids, 



(Div. I.) " q 



