ON THE HYBRIDISATION OF THE GENUS ROSA 



41 



Varieties or Variations produced from the Seeds of the 

 Former Subjects without their having been artificially 

 fertilised. 



After the most remarkable varieties of wild Roses had been introduced 

 into gardens, the idea at once arose of sowing their seed without any 

 further treatment. Everybody knows that knowledge of the laws relating 

 to artificial fertilisation is not very old.* The offspring from these 

 seeds produced many varieties, but all very much alike, because these 

 varieties were only the results of simple accidental changes, there not 

 having arisen any new element to upset the laws of natural reproduction ; 

 they simply reproduced themselves with slight variations in colour or 

 doubleness ; the variations being caused by the influence exercised by 

 cultivation, assisted by manure, which forced them into hypertrophy or 

 the multiplication of petals. When they were placed near to each other, 

 certain forms of the same species crossed between themselves and gave 

 slightly more marked varieties. 



The hybrid combinations of Bosa gallica which we have enumerated 

 above, after M. Crepin, are not the only ones about which certain 

 authors have suggested the idea that they were of hybrid origin. , Dr. 

 Christ adds the following : Bosa gallica x gallica var. provincialis ? 

 (this should be the Hundred-leaved Rose, Bosa ccntifolia L.) 



Bosa gallica x cinnaniomea 

 „ x trachyphylla 

 „ x tomentclla 



„ x moschata (B. clamascena Mill.; 



Some of the above-quoted hybrids should certainly be regarded with 

 some reservations, and only accepted out of grace to the list, until the 

 truth of the assertion has been proved by artificial hybridising. 



Varieties of Hybrid Origin. 



The varieties of hybrid origin deserve special study. This must be 

 long and difficult, as, after making research, assertion should be checked 

 by actual experiment, as such statements, often contradictory, are simply 

 based on suppositions, and even sometimes are only the result of theories 

 founded on outward appearance. 



The following Roses are considered to be hybrids. Some of them are 

 of obscure origin, doubtful descent, often uncertain, or again of which the 

 forerunners are not well known or only guessed at. 



We borrow in part the list of M. Francois Crepin (loc. cit.) : 



Rose ' Maria Leonida.' Probably a hybrid between the Bracted Rose, 

 Bosa bracteata Wendl., and one of the varieties of the Indian section (Teas, 

 Bengals, &c). 



I * Bradley first mentioned it in 1739. He reported that the florist Fairchild, of 

 Hoxton, fertilised a plant of Dianthus Caryophyllus (Clove Pink) with the pollen of 

 Dianthus barbatus, and thus was the first to obtain a hybrid Pink, which was artifi- 

 cially reproduced a long time afterwards. In 1761 appeared the work of Kolreuter, 

 which was the real and original forerunner of the other publications which at once 

 appeared on the same subject. 



