THE BOOK OF ROSES. 65 



A VARIETY is an individual which derives, 

 from accidental causes, characters differing from 

 those of the species from which it originated ; 

 which characters are not invariable or perma- 

 nent, or to be produced with certainty from 

 seeds of the variety. 



A variety will sometimes reproduce itself for 

 several generations, and at length recur to its 

 original type. We should otherwise find in a 

 wild state the beautiful double and variegated 

 plants produced by art in our gardens, but 

 barren when arising from hybridity. 



The specific character of a species being in- 

 variable, is always to be found in its varieties. 

 But the monsters or double flowers produced by 

 gardeners being barren, and perpetuated only 

 by grafting, layers, or suckers, sometimes lose 

 the specific character ; as in the case of the 

 Rosa apetala, which does not retain one of its 

 specific characters.* 



Having laid down the ground-work of a the- 

 ory, we are bound to inquire into the pretences 

 on which botanists have established more than 

 a hundred species of the rose ; asserting that 

 they have discovered sufficient organic distinc- 

 tions between each, to create this extensive 



* Some plants of the Damask moss rose, raised in a 

 clergyman's garden at Tinwell, in Rutlandshire, have, 

 during the present year, lost their moss, and assumed 

 the appearance of the common Hundred-leaved. 



