XOVEMBER. 233 



THE BOURBOX ROSE. 



About thirty-five years ago, a French botanist, M. Breon, 

 visited the island of Bourbon, and found growing, in a garden 

 at St. Benoist, a Hose altogether new to him. The flowers 

 were rosy-carmine, beautifully cupped, and the petals remark- 

 able for their size and smoothness. Our botanist did not fail 

 to appreciate this nouveaute, and sending it to Paris, it was 

 there multiplied, and scattered abroad : this was the original 

 Bourbon Rose. It is not a species, but an accidental hybrid, 

 supposed to have sprung up between the common China Rose 

 and the red Four-seasons. 



Some of our readers will doubtless .remember the Rose 

 He de Bourbon, or Bourbon Jacques — for under both these 

 names it was disseminated ; and it is from this Rose, variously 

 hybridised, that all the Bourbon Roses have been obtained. 

 For the first few years most of the seedlings raised were of 

 the same colour as the original ; some were finer, and many 

 more double ; one of which, Augustine Leleur, remains a good 

 Rose to this day. The first variation was the production of 

 kinds of a clear and beautiful silvery tint, then of a dark purple 

 and crimson hue, till now we have in the subject of this notice 

 a flower as brilliant in colour, and equal in form, to almost 

 any Rose. The habit of Prince Albert is dwarf; the shoots 

 are very robust, and well clothed with large, rich, green foli- 

 age. It usually blooms in large clusters, but does not grow 

 rampant, like Madame Desprez, but produces short, massive 

 shoots, more in the way of Comice de Seine et Marne, from 

 which it is probably a seedling, although more robust, larger, 

 brighter in colour, and more double. As it is of dwarf habit, 

 and blooms freely from June till November, it will probably 

 prove an acquisition as a bedding Rose. Our drawing was 

 taken from a flower in summer ; the autumn blooms we have 

 observed are of a richer but less brilliant hue. 



The history of this Rose is briefly this: Mr. Paul of the 

 Cheshunt Nurseries found it growing in the garden of the 

 raiser, in the neighbourhood of Fontenay-aux-Roses, near 

 Paris ; and being struck with the beauty and brilliancy of 

 the flowers, purchased the entire stock, and now, for the first 

 time, offers plants for sale. 



The Bourbon Roses generally are hardy and easy of cul- 

 ture ; the short-wooded, free-blooming kinds require two 

 annual dressings of manure and close pruning ; they are then 

 the most beautiful of autumn Roses, flowering better and 



XKW SKRIKS. VOL. II. NO. XXIII. X 



