The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

RECORD: A Lady. 1875. Extinction of the Macartney Rose. (Forwarded by Darwin). Gardeners' Chronicle (17 July): 78.

NOTE: See the record for this item in the Freeman Bibliographical Database by entering its Identifier here. The editors of the Darwin correspondence noted: "The Macartney rose (Rosa bracteata) is native to China. An article published in Gardeners' Chronicle, 24 July 1875, pp. 98-9, noted that it was not fully hardy and so was killed by cold winters, that it flowered too late to ripen seed, and that it was not grown for commercial use because it was single flowered." Correspondence vol. 23, p. 279.

[page] 78

—Mr. DARWIN has kindly forwarded to us the following note, received by him from a lady, with reference to the EXTINCTION OF THE MACARTNEY ROSE:—"I think it possible that the extinction of a species may interest you. The Macartney Rose, of which I have a tree, has all over England simultaneously ceased to produce any fructifying buds for grafting or seed-vessels after the Rose. Finding my own dying out, I tried in various places, with the same result." Can any correspondent throw further light on this subject?

Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)