NATIONAL ROSE CONFERENCE. 



207 



question for discussion, but as it will be raised in connection both 

 with Dr. King's and Professor Crepin's papers, I will not say 

 anything further upon it now. 



Wild Bosc-typcs and the geographical distribution of the 

 genus. — It is very difficult in the wild Koses to draw the line of 

 demarcation between species and varieties, and no doubt the wild 

 species hybridise naturally to some extent. Many of the wild 

 species run through a wide range of variation. Our common 

 English Dog Rose has not been operated upon under cultivation 

 to any appreciable extent, and yet, twenty years ago, when I 

 wrote a monograph of the British Roses, I had to separate and 

 name no less than thirty varieties of it, varieties that in their 

 typical form could be easily distinguished and characterised, but 

 which are all linked with one another in our English woods and 

 hedges by gradual intermediate stages of transition. Authorities 

 differ widely, but we may say safely that there are at least fifty 

 clearly distinguishable speciesin the genus. Rosa, like Lilium. is 

 a genus that is absolutely characteristic of the north temperate 

 zone. It is spread throughout the north temperate zone in both 

 hemispheres, with out- wandering representatives in the moun- 

 tains of Abyssinia, Mexico, and the Neilgherries. But all the 

 roses of Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, and South temperate 

 America are carried there by cultivation. We may roughly 

 define five distinct Rose regions, viz. : — 1st, Europe, including 

 North Africa and Western Asia ; 2nd, Siberia, with Central 

 Asia; 3rd, China, with Japan; 4th, India ; 5th, North America. 

 Most of the fifty species are confined to one of these five regions. 



Organs that furnish differential characters for groups and 

 species. — We have before us a valuable paper in connection with 

 which the general subject of Rose-classification can be discussed. 

 The genus is one of the most distinct in the whole vegetable 

 kingdom. The great calyx-tube, with many one-seeded bony 

 fruits lying loosely inside it, growing red and fleshy as it matures, 

 is quite unlike that of any other of the seventy genera of the 

 natural order to which Rosa gives a name. Its nearest familiar 

 allies are Agrimonia and Alchemilla, in which the carpels are one 

 or very few in number, and the calyx- tube does not grow red 

 and fleshy. By way of introduction to Professor Crepin's paper 

 I will say only a few words about the range of character which 

 the different organs furnish. 



