NEW HYBRIDS TO ABI AT. 



501 



to rediscover the original Noisettes, or their immediate descendants, with 

 which different crosses might be tried ; because, since the first varieties of 

 this section were obtained, numerous different Koses have been either 

 introduced or raised in our gardens, and in them we have new material 

 to work with. 



Rosa microphylla.— We cultivate, in France under the name of 

 Chataigne (or Chestnut) Roses, several varieties of this Japanese species, 

 which are remarkable from the fact of the calyx being always covered all 

 over with straight thorns, set close together. It would be interesting 



Fig. 143. - Rosa Banksije, wild form. (Gardeners' 1 Chronicle.) 



to try crossing this species with the ordinary or with the perpetual Moss 

 Roses. 



Bourbon Roses. — This family of Roses appears to have already 

 made its supreme effort, stopped in its attempts at variation by the sterility 

 of even its finest seeds, and by the disappearance of the seed-bearing 

 powers which produced ' Souvenir de la Malmaison,' for example. 



It would possibly be useful, for the sake of trying them afresh, to 

 rediscover the first descendants of this type, or in default of this, to try 

 to reproduce them again by crossing an Indian with a Damask Rose, 

 since we are assured that this was the origin of the Bourbon Rose. 



From the observations I have already made (which, however, could be 



