98 DESCRIPTION OP THE ROSE. 



strength, and vitality. On the other hand, it is in the 

 power of the skilful florist to develop or to repress what- 

 ever quality he may please. By artificial processes of 

 culture, roses have been produced, beautiful in form and 

 color, but so small, that the whole plant, it is said, might 

 be covered with an egg-shell. These are results of the 

 ingenious florists of China and Japan. The culture that 

 refines without invigorating, belongs, it seems, to a par- 

 tial or perverted civilization. 



These several families of roses, resulting from the devel- 

 opment of the several species of wild rose, have mingled 

 together; in other words, they have intermarried: for 

 Linnaeus has shown that " the loves of the flowers " are 

 more than a conceit of poetical fancy. From the fertiliza- 

 tion of the flowers of a rose of one family with the pollen 

 of a rose of another family arises a mixed offspring, called 

 hybrids. Seeds which are vegetable eggs are first 

 produced ; and these seeds germinate, or hatch, into a 

 brood of young plants, combining in some degree the 

 qualities of their parents. As this process of intermixture 

 may be carried on indefinitely, avast number of new vari- 

 eties has resulted from it. 



The botanical classification of the rose is a perplexity to 



