EOTAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
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of flowers not differing from those of ordinary Gloire de Dijon. In 
the spring of the present year (1873) it was moved and planted 
against a north wall, in similar hut somewhat heavier soil than it 
was growing in hefore. It was long in starting into growth, hut 
ultimately made several vigorous shoots, on one of which, and that 
the weakest, the pink flower truss was produced. 
It is, of course, not absolutely certain that Mr. Kemp's variety 
and Mr. Ingram's are the same. ^N'o opportunity of comparing the 
two side by side has yet been afforded, and therefore in discussing 
the possible causes of the change it is more prudent to consider the 
two cases separately, in spite of the strong impression on the mind 
of the writer that the two varieties are so nearly the same as to 
entitle them to be called by the same name. 
Reverting then to Mr. Kemp's rose, we may ask to what 
circumstances are we to attribute the change ? It cannot in this 
instance have arisen from budding or grafting, because we are 
assured no such operation was effected. It may have arisen from 
reversion or " sporting " to an ancestral form. Some of the pro- 
genitors of this Rose may have had deep -coloured flowers. Suc- 
cessive generations have participated to a slight extent in the 
colouring derived from their progenitors, but suddenly this one has 
gained a full measure of the liquid pigment on which the colour 
depends. Darwin's theory of pangenesis affords a partial explana- 
tion of how this may occur. An hereditary taint, so to speak — a 
gemmule — according to this hypothesis is transmitted from organ- 
ism to organism. In one generation it may be dormant and in- 
active, in another it may be endowed with full vitality, become in- 
tensified, and reproduce itself with rapidity under the influence of 
favourable circumstances. But what those circumstances are, 
and how they act, the hypothesis in question does not tell 
us. That this particular rose, like thousands of similar 
cases, may have been produced in this manner is of course 
possible. !No one can deny that it may have been so. The 
suddenness of its appearance is consistent with what is usually 
observed in similar instances, and so far is favourable to the notion. 
On the other hand, a sport or reversion is usually local, and presents 
itself on one particular branch, or on a few only. Many of our 
garden varieties of Rose have originated in this way.* If we say, as 
♦ A similar instance of a pink-coloured sport in Celine Forestier was 
shown before the Society in July, 1873. The canary-yellow coloured Rose 
called Isabella Sprunt is said to have been a sport from the apricot-coloured 
Saflfrano. See Carri^re, ** Production et fixation des Variet^s dans les vege- 
