^ 



f> 



380 



BUD-VARIATION. 



Chap. XI 



Mr. Rivers also informs me that lie raised two or three roses of the 

 Provence class from seed of the old single moss-rose ; 3S and this latter 

 kind was produced in 1807 by bud-variation from the common moss-rose 

 The white moss-rose was also produced in 1788 by an offset from the 

 common red moss-rose : it was at first pale blush- coloured, but became 

 white by continued budding. On cutting down the shoots which had 

 produced this white moss-rose, two weak shoots were thrown up and 

 buds from these yielded the beautiful striped moss-rose. The common 

 moss-rose has yielded by bud- variation, besides the old single red moss-rose 

 the old scarlet semi-double moss-rose, and the sage-leaf moss-rose, which 

 " has a delicate shell-like form, and is of a beautiful blush colour • it 

 is now (1852) nearly extinct." 39 A white moss-rose has been seen to 

 bear a flower half white and half pink. 40 Although several moss-roses 

 have thus certainly arisen by bud-variation, the greater number pro- 

 bably owe their origin to seed of moss-roses. For Mr. Eivers informs 

 me that his seedlings from the old single moss-rose almost always pro- 

 duced moss-roses ; and the old single moss-rose was, as we have seen the 

 product by bud-variation of the double moss-rose originally imported 

 from Italy. That the original moss-rose was the product of bud-variation 

 is probable, from the facts above given and from the moss-rose de Meanx 

 (also a var. of li. centifolia)* 1 having appeared as a sporting branch on 

 the common rose de Meaux. 



Prof. Caspary has carefully described 42 the case of a six-year-old 

 white moss-rose, which sent up several suckers, one of which was thorny, 

 and produced red flowers, destitute of moss, exactly like those of the Pro- 

 vence rose (R. centifolia) : another shoot bore both kinds of flowers and 

 in addition longitudinally striped flowers. As this white moss-rose had 

 been grafted on the Provence rose, Prof. Caspary attributes the above 

 changes to the influence of the stock ; but from the facts already given, 

 and from others to be given, bud-variation, with reversion, is probably a 

 sufficient explanation. 



Many other instances could be added of roses varying by buds. The 

 white Provence rose apparently thus originated. 43 The double and highly- 

 coloured Belladonna rose has been known 44 to produce by suckers both 

 semi-double and almost single white roses: whilst suckers from one of 

 these semi-double white roses reverted to perfectly characterised Bella- 

 donnas. Varieties of the China rose propagated by cuttings in St. Domingo 

 often revert after a year or two into the old China rose. 45 Many cases 



38 See also Loudon's 'Arboretum,' 

 vol. ii. p. 780. 



39 All these statements on the origin 

 of the several varieties of the moss- 

 rose are given on the authority of Mr. 

 Shailer, who, together with his father, 

 was concerned in their original propa- 

 gation, in « Gard. Chron.,' 1852, p. 759. 



40 ' Gard. Chron.,' 1845, p. 564. 



41 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. ii p 

 242. 



42 ' Schriften der Phys. Okon. Gesell. 

 zu Konigsberg,' Feb. 3, 1865, s. 4. See 

 also Dr. Caspary's paper in ' Transac- 

 tions of the Hort. Congress of Amster- 

 dam/ 1865. 



43 ' Gard. Chron.,' 1852, p. 759. 



44 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. ii. p. 

 242. 



45 Sir K. Schombnrgk, ' Proc. Linn. 

 Soc. Bot.,' vol. ii. p. 132. 



