98 



IRISH GARDENING 



tmguish between the two with your eyes shut. 

 You may jirefer the perfume of K. canina, and 

 that of E,. arveusis luay not aj-peal to you at all. 

 Perhaps this is owing to lack of exercise of the 

 sense of smell ; it is not alert. Bees and kindred 

 insects are guided hy the sense of smell ; in them 

 it is acute, and they infinitely prefer R. arvensis 

 to R. canina. Doubtless you have noticed that, 

 and you have also observed that the musk per- 

 fume of the Rose is the most attractive of all 

 where bees are concerned. " The true old Rose 

 scent '■ is nothing to them, as long as there is a 

 Musk Rose which they can visit. Bees will 

 crowd around and hustle in and out of the small 

 blossoms of R. inoscliata and R. brunonis, 

 neglecting to visit other Roses near l)y, not- 

 withstanding their strong damask and sethic- 

 tive tea perfume. 



Now, although all wild Roses possess frag- 

 rance, some appear to us to have more, or 

 stronger, jierfume than others, and consequently 

 they are better known. The most noticeable 

 of all are four : (1) The JVIusk Perfume, exempli- 

 fied in the species R. moschata, also in moschata 

 nivea, brunonis, and their hybrids, the dwarf 

 perpetual flower cluster Roses. (2) The Damask 

 Perfume, derived from R. damascena, the Pro- 

 vence antlGallica, of which the hybrid perjjetual 

 is the offspring. As the species is a red Rose, 

 the prevailing colour among hylnid perj^etuals 

 is red, and it is in these red Roses that the 

 damask perfume is the strongest. (3) The Tea 

 Perfume, obtained in the first instance from R. 

 indica odorata, and earned on in the true tea- 

 like Devoniensis and Madame Bravy. (4) The 

 perfume of R. lutea and its progeny, Persian 

 yellow and others. As the species is yellow, so 

 its perpetual flowering hybrids, the new Per- 

 netiana race, are more or less yellow. The 

 perfume here is a sort of fruity apricot, banana- 

 like odour, and the more decided is the yellow, 

 the stronger is this fruity perfume. These four 

 we may term pure perfumes, because they are 

 the same as in each of the four species. But 

 there are also blends, like the blends in tea and 

 tobacco, superior, in a degree, to the pure per- 

 fvune ; the blend of Musk and Tea is one, the 

 blend of Musk and Damask is another. Appar- 

 ently the Tea and Damask will not ))lend ; the 

 one seems to counteract the other, aud both are 

 held up. So when raisers were stri\ing to obtain 

 more freedom of flowering Ijy crossing the hybrid 

 perpetual with the Tea Rose, the progeny on 

 the whole lacked perfume. It is true they 

 obtained free-flowering hybrid teas, but these 

 were deficient in fragrance. 



We will now attempt to classify the fragrance 

 of the Rose (it is onh^ an attempt), indicating at 



the same time a few of the best scented varieties 

 in each respective class. 



Classification of Rose Fragrance. 



Perjuine 



Variety 



Habit 



I. Pure M>!sk 



II. Pure Damasl 



III. Pure Tea 



IV. R. lutea 



V. Blend of 

 I\Iusk and Tea 



VI. Blend of 

 Musk aud 

 Damask 



R. moschata 



R. moschata nivea 



R. l)runonis 

 I The Garland 

 i Seagull 



lloonhght 



Daphne 



York and Lamasiei, 



D. (tile true) 

 Tuscany, D. 

 Marie Bauniann, H.P. 

 General Jacquemino* 



H.P. 

 Senateur Vaisse, H.P. 

 Souvenir de Pierre 



Dupuy D. 

 Zejjhirine Drouhin, B. 



Madame Bravy, T. i 

 Devoniensis, T. 

 Gloire de Dijon, T. 



Persian Yellow 

 Austrian Yellow 

 Rayon d"Or 

 Juliet 



Lamarcjue, N. 

 Marechal Niel, N. 



I..a France 

 Mrs. A. E. (V)xhead 

 Edward Mawley 

 President Vignet 



Not per|)etual 

 Not ])er])ctnal 

 Not jK-rpctual 

 Not perpetual 

 Not ])er])etual 

 PeriM'tual 

 Pei'i)etual 



N(jt ])erp( tual 



Not perpetual 



Perjietual 



Perpetual 



Perpetual 

 Not perpetual 



Perpetual 



Perpetual 

 Perpetual 

 Perpetual 



Not perpetual 

 Not perpetual 

 Perpetual 

 Perpetual 



Not i)erpetual 

 Perpetual 



PeriJetual 

 Perpetvial 

 Peqjetual 

 Perpetual 



With reference to DiAision VI., the perfume 

 of these Roses is not pure Damask — not "' the 

 true old Rose scent "' — there is something else 

 as well ; more accentuated, perhaps, in La 

 France than in the others ; it ajipears to be the 

 Musk. Judging from their habit of growth and 

 length of flowering period, the last three Aarieties 

 have a common ancestor, and they, together 

 with their ancestor, have doubtless a strahi of 

 R. moschata in their constitution. 



Of all the various perfuiues, that of the 

 l^amask is the most pronounced, w hilst that of 

 the Musk is the most delicate. The former is 

 heavy and strong, and is popular. But bear in 

 mind this, " the true old Rose scent " that the 

 R.H.8. are now asking for comes from a stock 

 that is fast cUsa].pearing, the Hybrid Perpetual. 

 Now, the thoroughbred Hybrid Perpetual is not 

 a good autumn-Howering Rose. Indeed, the 

 writer cannot for the moment recall the nam© 



