Charles Darwin on roses

THE VARIATION OF

ANIMALS AND PLANTS

UNDER DOMESTICATION

BY

CHARLES DARWIN, M. A., F. R. S., ETC.

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. 1

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1920

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

During the seven years which have elapsed since the publication in 1868 of the first edition of this Work, I have continued to attend to the same subjects, as far as lay in my power; and I have thus accumulated a large body of additional facts, chiefly through the kindness of many correspondents. Of these facts I have been able here to use only those which seemed to me the more important. I have omitted some statements, and corrected some errors, the discovery of which I owe to my reviewers. Many additional references have been given. The eleventh chapter, and that on Pangenesis, are those which have been most altered, parts having been re-modelled; but I will give a list of the more important alterations for the sake of those who may possess the first edition of this book.

[the following are selections from chapter 10]

FLOWERS.

     I SHALL not for several reasons treat the variability of plants which are cultivated for their flowers alone at any great length. Many of our favourite kinds in their present state are the descendants of two or more species crossed and commingled together, and this circumstance alone would render it difficult to detect the difference due to variation. For instance, our Roses, Petunias, Calceolarias, Fuchsias, Verbenas, Gladioli, Pelargoniums, &c., certainly have had a multiple origin. A botanist well acquainted with the parent-forms would probably detect some curious structural differences in their crossed and cultivated descendant; and he would certainly observe many new and remarkable constitutional peculiarities. I will give a few instances, all relating to the Pelargonium, and taken chiefly from Mr. Beck, a famous cultivator of this plant: some varieties require more water than others; some are "very impatient of the knife if too greedily used in making cuttings; " some, when potted, scarcely "show a root at the outside of the ball of the earth;" one variety requires a certain amount of confinement in the pot to make it throw up a flower-stem; some varieties bloom well at the commencement of the season, others at the close; one variety is known, which will stand "even pine-apple top and bottom heat, without looking any more drawn than if it had stood in a common greenhouse; and Blanche Fleur seems as if made on purpose for growing in winter, like many bulbs, and to rest all summer." These odd constitutional peculiarities would enable a plant in a state of nature to become adapted to widely different circumstances and climates.

Roses.---These flowers offer an instance of a number of forms generally ranked as species, namely, R. centifolia, gallica, allba, damascena, spinosissima, bractcata, indica, semperflorens, moschata, &c., which have largely varied and been intercrossed. The genus rosa is a notoriously difficult one, and, though some of the forms are admitted by all botanists to be distinct species, others are doubtful; thus, with respect to the British forms, Babington makes seventeen, and Bentham only five species. The hybrids from some of the most distinct forms---for instance, from R. indica, fertilised by the Pollen of R. centifolia---produce an abundance of seed; I state this on the authority of Mr. Rivers, from whose work I have drawn most of the following statements. As almost all the aboriginal forms brought from different countries have been crossed and recrossed, it is no wonder that Targioni-Tozzetti, in speaking of the common roses of the Italian gardens, remarks that "the native country and precise form of the wild type of most of them are involved in much uncertainty." Nevertheless, Mr. Rivers in referring to R. indica (p. 68) says that the descendants of each group may generally be recognised by a close observer. The same author often speaks of roses as having been a little hybridised; but it is evident that in very many cases the differences due to variation and to hybridisation can now only be conjecturally distinguished.
     The species have varied both by seed and by bud; such modified buds being often called by gardeners sports. In the following chapter I shall fully discuss this latter subject, and shall show that bud-variations can be propagated not only by grafting and budding, but often by seed. Whenever a new rose appears with any peculiar character, however produced, if it yields seed, Mr. Rivers (p. 4) fully expects it to become the parent-type of a new family. The tendency to vary is so strong in some kinds, as in the Village Maid (Rivers, p. 1G), that when grown in different soils it varies so much in colour that it has been thought to form several distinct kinds. Although the number of kinds is very great: thus M. Desportes, in his Catalogue for 1829, enumerates 2562 as cultivated in France; but no doubt a large proportion of these are merely nominal.
     It would be useless to specify the many points of difference between the various kinds, but some constitutional peculiarities may be mentioned. Several French roses (Rivers, p. 12) will not succeed in England; and an excellent horticulturist remarks, that "Even in the same garden you will find that a rose that will do nothing under a south wall will do well under a north one. That is the case with Paul Joseph here. It grows strongly and blooms beautifully close to a north wall. For three years seven plants have done nothing under a south wall." Many roses can be forced, "many are totally unfit for forcing, among which is General Jacqueminot." From the effects of crossing and variation Mr. Rivers enthusiastically anticipates (p. 87) that the day will come when all our roses, even moss-roses, will have evergreen foliage, brilliant and fragrant flowers, and the habit of blooming from June till November.   "A distant view this seems, but perseverance in gardening will yet achieve wonders," as assuredly it has already achieved wonders.
     It may be worth while briefly to give the well-known history of one class of roses. In 1793 some wild Scotch roses (R. spinosissima) were transplanted into a garden; and one of these bore flowers slightly tinged with red, from which a plant was raised with semi-monstrous flowers, also tinged with red; seedlings from this flower were semi-double, and by continued selection, in about nine or ten years, eight sub-varieties were raised. In the course of less than twenty years these double Scotch roses had so much increased in number and kind, that twenty-six well-marked varieties, classed in eight sections, were described by Mr. Sabine. In 1841 it is said that three hundred varieties could be procured in the nursery-gardens near Glasgow; and these are described as blush, crimson, purple, red, marbled, two-coloured, white, and yellow, and as differing much in the size and shape of the flower.