January 7, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



while others demand a little trouble and care in the produc- 

 tion of new plants by division. 



Grafting or budding of Wild Roses should be avoided as 

 being of little utility and likely to perplex the amateur. 



There has been much confusion and diversity of opinion 

 among different botanists regarding the limitations and the 

 number of natural species of the Roses of the world, some 

 writers reducing the number of species to a score or two, 

 while others have divided them into several hundred spe- 

 cifically distinct kinds. So many of these Wild Roses resem- 

 ble one another so closely that there seems to be strong 

 grounds for keeping only a limited number of specific names, 

 many intermediate forms being referable to some typical 

 characteristic species. 



Some of the largest-blossomed and most beautiful of these 

 single-flowered Roses are not hardy in such a rigorous climate 

 as that of New England, but in our southern states they are or 

 may be perfectly hardy and at home. 



Among recent studies of Wild Roses by rhodologists cer- 

 tainly none are more thorough than those by Professor F. 

 Cr£pin, of Brussels, who has devoted many years to a careful 

 study of this genus. In his classification he divides all the 

 species into a number of groups or sections, chiefly according 

 to the characters and affinities of their flowers and fruit. As 

 already stated, it is not always easy to determine the species of 

 these plants. A student of the American Wild Roses, Dr. G. 

 N. Best, very truly says: "Few plants are more strikingly 

 modified by differences in environment than Roses. Even the 

 younger growths appear quite different from the older, so 

 much so indeed as to cause them to be taken for different spe- 

 cies. A knowledge, therefore, of the value of characters is 

 desirable. Quite contrary to what was once thought, the vary- 

 ing degrees of pubescence, glaucousness, glandulosity, and, to 

 some extent, of prickles, possess little diagnostic value, and 

 are to be considered most frequently as accidents of growth 

 depending on peculiarities of soil and location for their devel- 

 opment. Not that they are wholly devoid of value, but are so 

 only when taken in connection with characters of the first order. 

 ... In rank bushes the spines may be stout and curved, 

 in depauperate and slender, straight, and yet belong to the same 

 species. They are frequently absent from bushes to which 

 they normally belong, and this from no known cause." Such 

 variations are liable to become more marked under a long 

 term of garden cultivation, especially in regard to the size and 

 vigor of all the parts of the plants. Where a large number of 

 species are grown together it would seem that foreign pollen 

 must sometimes have an influence on some of the seedlings 

 of an allied species and natural hybrids be the result. In 

 botanic gardens, where pure seed of any good species is de- 

 sired, it would be well to protect the blossoms from visitations 

 by insects, some of which are industrious collectors of the 

 pollen. 



One of the largest groups of wild Roses is that to which the 

 old-fashioned Cinnamon Rose belongs. The single-flowered 

 type of the Cinnamon Rose {Rosa cinnamomea) is a native of 

 Europe and northern Asia. It is perfectly hardy where the 

 thermometer registers thirty degrees below zero. The blossoms 

 are of good size, fragrant, and in color like the double-flowered 

 form which has been grown in gardens for centuries. This 

 form has been neglected since the advent of so many finer 

 double garden Roses. In some places it has escaped 

 from cultivation and is found away from any build- 

 ing, covering considerable patches of ground by gradual 

 spreading from underground shoots. Rosa cinnamomea 

 is an early flowering species ; but one of the earliest, if 

 not the very earliest, of wild Roses to bloom here is Rosa 

 acicularis , a species common in northern Europe and Asia 

 and also indigenous in America. This may be made to include 

 the Rosa Engelmanni figured on p. 377 of the second volume of 

 Garden and Forest, or the R. acicularis, var. Bourgeauiana, 

 as it was first named by Crgpin. Under cultivation Rosa 

 acicularis is an erect, vigorous bush from six to eight feet 

 high, with stems and branches usually quite thickly covered 

 with rather slender prickles. In this region the first of the 

 large rosy pink flowers often expand as early as the 15th or 

 20th of May, and the fruit which follows ripens and becomes 

 bright red in the latter part of August. It is a very hardy 

 plant and blooms freely. It does not appear to have given 

 origin to any double garden forms or to have been used 

 much in artificial cross-fertilizing. 



Rosa alpina, from Europe, has much the same habit and 

 stature as the last species, and its flowers are hardly distin- 

 guishable and seem almost equally early. It is, however, com- 

 paratively unarmed and bears very few prickles. A number 

 of double varieties have been derived from this species, and 



it is said to have been one of the parents of the old climbing, 

 double-flowering kinds known as the Boursault Roses. 



Rosa Beggeriana is an Asiatic species, which, although 

 hardy, has not yet shown great vigor or long life here. It 

 attains a height of five or six feet, and is erect, with slender 

 branches which seem insufficiently covered by the foliage. 

 It has slender spines, and the flowering branches are quite 

 smooth and without prickles. The delicate pearly white blos- 

 soms are not large, averaging about an inch and a half across, 

 and they are pleasantly fragrant. The fruit is small, round, 

 and dark red in color. The regular blooming of the plant begins 

 about the second week of June, but a few flowers continue 

 to appear throughout the summer, imitating the habit of Rosa 

 ricgosa. Although the few stray flowers do not make much of a 

 show, the habit may be further developed by selection, and the 

 species is one which may yield some interesting hybrids. Pro- 

 fessor Cr6pin states that there is a double variety of this in 

 cultivation in the gardens of Turkistan. 



Arnold Arboretum. J< *-*• J&CR. 



Pomological Candidates for Promotion. 



IF, in the near future, it should seem good to the members 

 of the American Pomological Society to revise its fruit 

 list, with the purpose of amending and enlarging that portion 

 of it allotted to the "best" apples, it would be well that the 

 apple culturists of the continent should begin now to consider 

 the subject, and make known their opinions. It seems to me 

 that the state and provincial lists ought really to be made the 

 basis of the continental list. In this way would be removed 

 the anomaly of a list like the present, which contains so few 

 varieties other than those of the north-eastern states. Surely 

 the south, the west and the Pacific coast ought to be heard 

 from ; and even in the north and east there may be apples 

 better entitled to the highest place than some of the present 

 list. 



It will be urged that time is required before any variety 

 should be promoted to the highest place. Certainly, time 

 enough should be allowed to permit a majority of the mem- 

 bers of the Society to have some adequate knowledge in 

 regard to fruits put forward as candidates for this award. But 

 this need not be very long, when it is so easy in a few years to 

 acquire the necessary acquaintance with such fruits. It must 

 be determined, also, whether high dessert quality alone, with- 

 out reference to thrift, productiveness and commercial value, 

 is to be sufficient. Some of our finest apples are strictly 

 garden sorts, requiring high culture and special treatment to 

 fully develop their merits. But in these times such a need 

 does not exclude a fruit from commerce. The great improve- 

 ment which has taken place in our market gardens can be 

 and is being extended to our orchards ; and choice varieties, 

 well grown and properly handled, can be made commercially 

 profitable in the hands of competent growers, provided that 

 they join to excellent flavor the other market qualities in a 

 reasonable degree. If, however, a variety is absolutely 

 unprofitable, and cannot be grown except as apricots are 

 grown on our Atlantic slopes, it certainly is open to doubt its 

 admissibility to the list of best apples on the mere quality of 

 the fruit. 



It ought to be in order, also, to inquire why sweet apples are 

 excluded from the highest place. We have not excluded other 

 fruits for this cause. On the contrary, sweetness is an ac- 

 knowledged merit in our grapes, plums, oranges, peaches, 

 strawberries and many other fruits. Mere sweetness, unac- 

 companied with other definite and acceptable flavor, may not 

 be thought to entitle an apple to the highest place. But a 

 considerable number of our sweet apples possess marked 

 excellence of flavor other than saccharinity, if I may be allowed 

 to use the term. 



Further, it may be questioned whether it should be required 

 that an apple be found " best " in every part of a country so 

 large as this. If growers over a considerable section, or even 

 of a single state, are unanimous in claiming this position for 

 any of their choice fruits it should be allowed. Practically, 

 this was the course taken in making up the present list, which 

 was mainly done when the attendance was chiefly from eastern 

 states. 



I have been at the pains of drawing off and classifying care- 

 fully the apples rated by Downing as" very good," " very good 

 to best" and "best" in his "Fruits and Fruit Trees of 

 America." A considerable proportion of the apples described 

 are given no rating ; and those in the second appendix, though 

 the quality is frequently spoken of, are not rated by this other- 

 wise general system. A few varieties termed " excellent " I 

 have included under the head of " very good," though it might 

 be inferred that they are entitled to a higher rating. I here 



