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From a lady   [before 17 July 1875]1

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.2 Finding my own dying out, I tried in various places, with the same result.

1
The date is established by the date of publication in Gardeners’ Chronicle. CD forwarded the letter and the correspondent was described as ‘a lady’.
2
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.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10070F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10070F