146 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC IMUSEUIM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. III. 



THE ROSE FAMILY IN WISCONSIN 



By Albert M. Fuller^ 



While making a somewhat intensive studj^ of the blackberries 

 native to Wisconsin for thesis work at the University of Wisconsin, 

 the writer's attention was called to the variability that exists in the 

 group. An examination of other genera showed that the blackberries 

 did not have a monopoly on variation. 



Variation is one of the essential characteristics in the improvement 

 of any plant but all of the variations exhibited by plants are not de- 

 sirable. The plant breeder chooses the desirable characteristics and 

 tries to strengthen and perpetuate them, while he does his best to 

 eliminate those that are undesirable. 



Every family in the plant kingdom has radicals. It is these radi- 

 cals that are of especial interest to the plant breeder. Many of the 

 radicals can be confined to three families — the violet, the evening 

 primrose and the rose. All three of these families are very interest- 

 ing, but the most important as far as the human race is concerned, is 

 the rose family. A large number of eccentric individuals belong to 

 this family, which can be confined to four genera — the juneberry 

 (Amelanchier) , the hawthorn (Crataegus), the blackberry (Rubus) 

 and the rose (Rosa). 



It has been generally accepted since biblical times that plants 

 behaved in a decent and orderly way— that plants always bred true 

 to their kind. An unbridgeable gulf was supposed to exist between 

 one kind of a plant and another, making it impossible for plants to 

 intergrade. Linneaus, the father of modern botany, evidently be- 

 lieved species to be absolutely distinct, and even some botanists today 

 hold more or less to the same idea. After the appearance of Dar- 

 win's ''Origin of the Species," scientists were stimulated to work on 

 this problem. Numerous theories were advanced as to how new spe- 

 cies came into existence, but soon the problem narrowed down to a 

 study of heredity. It was generally accepted for a time that acquired 

 characteristics were inherited, but the great German zoologist, Weiss- 

 man, performed experiments that gave contrary evidence. (Today 

 some scientists believe that certain acquired characteristics are in- 

 herited). 



Up to about 1900 most of the work pertaining to heredity was done 

 in laboratories. Cells were studied under the microscope to see if 

 they could find the bodies that carried the inherited characteristics, 



"Assistant Curator of Botany, Milwaukee Public Museum. 



