62 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
GARDEN PLANTS-THEIR GEOGRAPHY, XVIII. 
ROSALES. (B.) 
THE GENISTA, ROSA AND DROSERA ALLIANCE. 
( Continued .) 
Rosa, the rose, is the type flower of this section 
of the alliance. The rose is familiar to all the peo- 
ples of the temperate part of the northern hemi- 
sphere — better known perhaps by their innumerable 
garden varieties than their many wild forms. Ben- 
tham and Hooker seem to desire to reduce the 600 
recorded names to about 50 species, having a geo- 
graphical distribution extending throughout the 
sub-tropical, temperate and sub-Alpine regions of 
the northern hemisphere; the actual southern limits 
appear to be the 
mountains of 
Southern India 
ind Abyssinia 
n the old world, 
md the moun- 
ains of Mexico 
n the new. The 
Tew arboretum 
! s':s, however, 
nention nearly 
70 species as 
cultivated in the 
gardens, to say 
nothing of var- 
ieties, which are 
very numerous. 
Perhaps it isn’t 
possible to get 
consistency of statement even from an establish- 
ment professing the Plantar mn Catechism! The 
Rose varies immensely, however; even a little 
island like Great Britain has half a dozen distinct 
specific types, which vary so greatly that botanists 
have perfectly buried them under names, and they 
are not yet done; neither are the roses ceasing to 
vary. As for the garden forms it is impossible to 
refer them with certainty to their origin. I notice 
that France and California both intend to attempt 
new classifications of the genus, but I fear they will 
be quite as arbitrary as all preceding them. The 
attempt to refer a variety to its species cannot be 
attended with certainty, for often the species is not 
well defined. It may very well be suspected that 
in many cases a variety would perish if put through 
a process of reversion in the center of production 
for the supposed species, yet it is probable that no 
other positive method of proving a variety presents 
itself. The natural climates will commonly soon 
take the airs out of a plant if it be left to perpetuate 
itself and fight competition. Sometimes a species 
MARCHIONESS OF LONDONDERRY. 
A typical hardy white H. P. rose, (t’ourtesy of 
Ellwanger& Barry.) 
will naturalize in a foreign country, but never, I 
believe, in a foreign zone; a tea rose would never 
grow wild on the Catskill Mountains. There are 
about a dozen and a half of species wild and ad- 
ventive to the various sections of the United States 
and the natives have several varieties, but only a 
few garden hybrids, the late John Feast of Baltimore 
being almost the only person who worked with the 
prairie roses. Roses are valued for colors, perfume 
and doubleness. The latter quality is often pro- 
duced at the expense of stamens, so that fertiliza- 
tion is difficult or impossible with their own pollen. 
Roses will often flower in climates ill adapted to 
the perfecting of their seeds. There is a singular 
story related about the “field” or “Ayrshire” rose, 
now called R. repens again, and found wild in 
Scotland only in the vicinity of Loudon Castle, to 
the effect that it was taken there by the Earl of 
Loudon from America, and that the following lines 
refer to it: 
“The rose of the desert, 
So lonely and wild, 
On the green leaf of freedom 
Its infancy smiled.” 
This rose (R. arvensis as it is best known to 
English speaking people) is common in the south of 
Europe and in the south of England, but there is no 
mention of it in American botanies. The Ayrshircs 
are often good roses for this country’ however. 
Tender climbing roses at the north should be 
turned under porches, into cellar windows, buried 
lightly under ground, like raspberries, or well 
strawed up. They are worth it. 
ROSA L/EVIOATA. 
A splendid example of these tender climbing 
roses is R. laevigata, freely naturalized in some parts 
of the south, and often used for hedges in that sec- 
tion. It is singular how few hybrids have been ob- 
tained from this Chinese species.. R. gigantea from 
