NEW HVIUMDS TO AIM AT. 



495 



It is necessary to discover the ancestry of this Bourbon, and I do not 

 think it will be impossible if we look back. 



Monsieur J. B. Guillot discovered the marvel which we call 'La 

 France.' This accomplished nurseryman, who has enriched our collections 

 with some superb varieties, has left a good disciple in his son. Monsieur 

 Pierre Guillot. Can he not create for us other varieties of the same 

 ancestry, but of different colours ? 



The elder Monsieur Fernet found us 'Baroness Rothschild,' and 

 happily, by a sport from it, ' Merveille de Lyon.' But we should like 

 to see a scarlet or golden-yellow ' Baroness.' Is the mould in which this 

 superb Rose was cast broken up *? Is its mother-parent unknown ? 



Monsieur Levet produced ' Paul Neyron,' but we should be pleased if 

 this immense Hose had been willing to give us some offspring. 



If it were not for the fact that in most cases the production of new 

 varieties is owing to chance, it might be possible to experiment again by 

 crossing anew the same Roses which had already given such exceptional 

 results — veritable chiefs of the line — without any great number of 

 descendants. It will doubtless be said that one is never certain of the 

 results which will be obtained from hybrids or their descendants. This 

 is often probable, but not always certain. 



However, let us leave the well-known Roses (on which, nevertheless, 

 there is much to be said) and go on to the well-defined types, from which 

 it appears to me that we have not yet obtained all the improvements 

 possible. 



In the study of hybrid Roses several alternatives present themselves,* 

 amongst which the following are the principal : — 



1. The product of the cross between two species may be absolutely 

 sterile. 



2. The product of the cross between two species may be sterile with 

 its own pollen, but may be fertilised by one of its parents, or occa- 

 sionally by both of them, or again by a variety which is entirely foreign 

 to them. 



8. A species which is sterile with its own pollen may fertilise, or be 

 fertilised by, another species, or a variety of mixed descent. 



About 1830 Monsieur Hardy, head gardener at the Luxembourg 

 Gardens, hybridised two interesting Roses, Rosa berberifolia, Pallas, and 

 E. clinophylla, Thory. This cross gave a singular result, of which I 

 shall speak somewhat at length. 



Rosa clinophylla, Thory (syns. R. incolucrata, Roxb., R. Liridleyana, 

 Tratt.), is a species from India and China, and belongs to the section 

 Bracteatce. It was figured by Redoute and in the Botanical Register. 



Rosa berberifolia, Pallas, is such a peculiar species and so different from 

 other Roses that several authors have thought that it ought to be placed 

 in a different genus. Thus Dumortier made from it the genus Hulthemia, 

 Lindley that of Loiuea, and Bunge Rhodopsis. 



This species is a native of Persia and Chinese Tartary. It is found in 



* Under the title of Hybrids, I mean the product of the crossing of any two 

 species, and not the special section generally known under the name of Hybrid 

 Perpetuals. To me the Bourbons, the Noisettes, the Polvanthas, Arc, are also 

 Hybrids. 



