ROYAL HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
153 
rence on Orange leaves, either in the South of Europe or the 
Azores ; hut botanists should look out for it. 
XXYI. On a pink sport of the Gloire de Bijon Eose. By M. 
T. Masters, M.D., F.E.S. 
Our first knowledge of this beautiful variety was derived from a 
specimen forwarded by Mr. A. S. Kemp.*' From the history given 
by that gentleman it appears that the plant was struck as a cut- 
ting four years since, and is growing on its own roots, in ordinary 
garden soil. Up to the year 1872 nothing unusual presented itself, 
but in the last-named season all the flowers that it produced were 
of a rosy pink colour. A plant of the same variety growing in the 
same border, within a distance of a foot, is not the least changed. 
The outer petals of Gloire de Dijon are frequently tinged 
^ with pink, and markedly so before the flower is fully expanded, 
and in the flowers produced in autumn ; hence it is not surprising 
that some of our Rosarians should have thought Mr. Kemp's speci- 
mens presented merely an exaggeration of this tendency. Thus 
we find Mr. D, T. "Fishf expressing himself in relation to this 
subject as follows : — 
This may be a case of reversion (as suggested) but more pro- 
bably it is an affair of local peculiarity of soil, or constitution . . . 
I have even observed marked differences of shade in the same, 
plant on different branches. Again, this Rose on its own roots, or 
on the Manetti and rooted over or above the graft, is more apt to 
show a pinky tint than over the briar, and these alterations of 
colour are more common towards the autumn than later ( ? earlier) 
in the season. Again, few things are more inconstant than the 
colour of Roses. . . . Are they all reverting," proceeds Mr. Fish 
"to their remote progenitors? and what were the colours and 
shapes of these, and why should the modern ones hie back in colour, 
and assume the forms of the Roses of long, long ago ? " 
The questions here propounded by Mr. Fish go to the root of the 
matter, and are by no means easily answered. Before offering any 
remarks on the possible mode of origin of this variety, it may be 
* Gard. Chron. 1872, 1160, col. a. 
t Gard. Chron. 1872, 1230, col. a. 
