1873.] NEW VARIETIES OF HIBISCUS EOSA-SINENSIS. 147 



As we ventured to look from this point, and speculate on the future, how much 

 we saw awaiting the hands of the improver, though in all our aspirations we were 

 far from anticipating the realisations of modern cultivators. The imagination 

 never reached a degree of tension which enabled it to descry in Hybrid Athelin 

 the Eose la Eeine, or the Gloire dc Dijon in the Yellow China. But here we 

 come to the practical. 



The French gardeners had already experienced enough to urge 'them forward 

 in the work of crossing the various groups and varieties the one with the 

 other. The group Hybrid China had increased and improved rapidly ; then 

 arose the slight variations. Hybrid Bourbon, and Hybrid Noisette, the Perpetual 

 Scotch, Perpetual Moss, and last and greatest, the Hybrid Perpetual. The 

 latter, now the most valuable group in our gardens, is due principally to 

 the crossing of the Hybrid China with the Damask Perpetual ; in fact, they 

 may be called Hybrid China Eoses, blooming both in summer and autumn. 

 The first strongly-marked variety. Princess Helene, was raised by M. Laffay, of 

 Bellevue, near Paris, who afterwards raised Madame Laffay, La Eeine, Duchess 

 of Sutherland, and many others. Entirely new ground was broken here, 

 and the harvest proved abundant. Other groups were drawn thence, the Eose 

 dc Trianon, Eose de Eosomene, and Bourbon Perpetual, possessing distinct 

 features, but which may be regarded as mere off-sets from the Bourbon and 

 Perpetual. During this time the Bourbon Eose, too, had proved wonderfully 

 productive. Originally a small, almost single, rose-coloured variety, it gradually 

 produced large double flowers of almost every shade of colour. Onward, a little 

 onward, and the Persian Yellow Eose was introduced from Persia, through the 

 Horticultural Society of London, while the Solfaterre and Cloth of Gold came 

 from the west of France. It will be seen that in this brief sketch we have had 

 no wish to depreciate " Old Eoses." Why should we ? We confess to loving 

 them much. But if there must be a contest for the palm of beauty between the 

 new and old, our judgment, after divesting the question of bygone associations, 

 pronounces audibly in favour of the new. We have no faith in the theory that 

 the Eose has reached its culminating point, and that henceforth no improvement 

 worth regarding need be looked for. 



Is it not more reasonable to assume that, while every season — even to the 

 latest — yields something new to delight and surprise us, we may still look for- 

 ward hopefully to the next ? But we shall endeavour further to substantiate 

 this view when we come to speak of " New Eoses."-— Wm. Paul, Paul's Nurseries^ 

 Wallham Cross^ N. 



NEW VARIETIES OF HIBISCUS EOSA-SINENSIS. 



^] Q; EW finer flowering plants are to be met with in our collections of stove plants 

 than that whose name heads this article. It is, moreover, like its congener 

 the beautiful but neglected hardy Althea frutex, very prolific of varieties, 

 and some remarkably fine ones have been recently introduced from the 



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