THE SUMMER ROSE GARDEN. 101 



desirable the qualities. .of >a fiwoimte rose should 

 preponderate, the petalsv of the flower to' be fer- 

 tilised must be opeagd" "gei/Jy with the lingers*; 

 a flower that will expand in the morning should 

 be opened the afternoon or evening previous, and 

 the anthers all removed with a pair of pointed 

 scissors ; the following morning when this flower 



* It requires some watchfulness to do this at the proper time ; 

 if too soon, the petals will be injured in forcing them open ; and 

 in hot weather in July, if delayed only an hour or two, the anthers 

 will be found to have shed their pollen. To ascertain precisely 

 when the pollen is in a fit state for transmission, a few of the 

 anthers should be gently pressed with the finger and thumb ; if 

 the yellow dust adheres to them the operation may be performed ; 

 it requires close examination and some practice to know when the 

 flower to be operated upon is in a fit state to receive the pollen ; 

 as a general rule, the flowers ought to be in the same state of ex- 

 pansion, or, in other words, about the same age. It is only in 

 cases where it is wished for the qualities of a particular rose to 

 predominate, that the removal of the anthers of the rose to be 

 fertilised is necessary ; thus, if a yellow climbing rose is desired 

 by the union of the Yellow Briar with the Ayrshire, every anther 

 should be removed from the latter, so that it is fertilised solely 

 with the pollen of the former. In some cases, where it is de- 

 sirable to have the qualities of both parents in an equal degree, 

 the removal of the anthers must not take place ; thus, I have 

 found by removing them from the Luxembourg Moss, and fer- 

 tilising that rose with a dark variety of Rosa Gallica, that the 

 features of the Moss Rose are totally lost in its offspring, and 

 they become nearly pure varieties of the former ; but if the anthers 

 of the Moss Rose are left untouched, and it is fertilised with Rosa 

 Gallica, interesting hybrids are the result, more or less mossy ; 

 this seems to make superfetation very probable ; yet Dr. Lind- 

 ley in " Theory of Horticulture," page 332, " thinks it is not very 

 likely to occur." 



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