Roses from Seed. 137 



rieties from seed, plants from which are annually brought into 

 notice, or flowered, for the first time; they are then presented 

 to competent judges, to decide upon their good or bad proper- 

 ties, and if the decision is in favor of the flowers, the plants that 

 produced them are not unfrequently sold at a very exorbitant 

 price. By cross impregnating a variety of sorts with each other, 

 new and splendid varieties would be obtained. This could be 

 done in America by any person who has a knowledge of the for- 

 mation of flowers, and the parts of fructification, with equal suc- 

 cess. But it is necessary to know that the seed will not vege- 

 tate in less than a year after it is gathered, i. e. if the seed is 

 sown in the spring of the year, the plants will not make their ap- 

 pearance before the following spring; therefore it cannot be 

 reasonably expected that the cultivator will know the results of 

 his experiments in less than three years from the time of first 

 putting the seed in the ground; but, by sowing every year, after 

 the first he will have a regular succession of seedling plants annu- 

 ally showing their flowers when the first three years have expir- 

 ed. This may appear to be rather a tedious process; but who- 

 ever wishes to raise new varieties of the rose from seed, must 

 conclude to wait with patience and hope for the best. All the 

 new varieties of dahlias, camellias, pelargoniums, &.c., are ob- 

 tained from seed, by the same process as recommended for the 

 rose, with this difference — the camellia seed will vegetate in 

 two or three months, the dahlia and pelargonium seed in a week 

 or ten days. 



The yellow noisette rose is very highly spoken of by those 

 who have had the pleasure of seeing it flower in great perfection. 

 There are a number of amateurs in this vicinity that have it, and 

 are seldom, or ever, able to obtain a perfect flower: the reason 

 of this deformity may in a great degree be occasioned by the 

 want of nourishment at the time when the flowers are opening; 

 this is, in my humble opinion, the precise time that every atten- 

 tion is necessary to help the plant with proper stimulants to put 

 forth its blooms, the flowers being large and very full of petals, 

 closely set together; the plants ought to be well supplied with 

 food from the first swelling of the buds to their full expansion; 

 and if all this has been regidarly attended to, and the result a 

 failure, T know of no other means to resort to but to insert the 

 buds into the Boiirsault, Greville, or JMuliifiora roses, which are 

 probably the best stocks that can be easily obtained for this pur- 

 pose. ,,• 

 ^ lours, 



Mount Auburn, Cambridge, ) 

 March 20, 1837. ] 



VOL. III. — NO. IV. 18 



J. W. Russell. 



