i a ele i ee ee 
ON THE DERIVATION OF SOME RECENT VARIETIES OF ROSES, 447 
various sources from which they were derived are better authenticated. 
The first in the field as raisers of new varieties were the French rosarians, 
and for many years they held almost the monopoly in this branch of 
horticulture, such raisers as Hardy, Desprez, Prevost, Vibert, Souchet, 
Laffay, and Portemer earning well-deserved distinction in their day. With 
the march of events, however, nearly all their introductions have now 
disappeared. The large collections of R. centifolia (Moss and Provence 
Roses), £. gallica (French or Provins Roses), and other summer-flowering 
hybrid varieties gave way to the Damask Perpetuals and Hybrid Perpetuals, 
many of which in their turn are now yielding place to the Hybrid Teas, 
the ‘Rambler ’ roses and other classes, and at the present time, although 
we still receive many good roses from France, some of the most valuable 
introductions are raised in the United Kingdom or reach us from Germany 
or the United States. So large has been the number of fresh intro- 
ductions that have appeared during the past fifty years that collections have 
become unwieldy in extent, and I fear that not a few good roses have 
been consigned to oblivion for want of space. We have, however, without 
doubt preserved the best of them and abundantly sufficient for our 
purposes. There is, nevertheless, one class of older roses whose gradual 
disappearance, I think, is to be deplored from the present standpoint of 
rose-growing, and that is the stronger-growing hardy Noisette roses which 
are so valuable as autumn-blooming climbing roses. Some of these still 
exist in old gardens, but they have lost their names, and it does not 
appear possible to identify them with any degree of certainty. 
As regards the particular rules that might be expected to govern the 
successful hybridisation and cross-breeding of the various species and 
families of roses, it may be said that the conditions vary. In some, such 
as the Sweet Briers, Rosa multiflora, and Rosa Wichuravana, where the 
species or types are clearly defined and the ground comparatively untrodden, 
the obtaining of fresh varieties of merit has hitherto been a direct and 
comparatively simple matter. In the case of other classes, however, such 
as the Hybrid Teas, where the materials are more complex and the ground 
already occupied with established favourites, some of the leading raisers 
find it necessary for the attainment of their desired ideals to make suc- 
cessive crosses through two or more generations. Thus the distinct and 
beautiful decorative rose ‘Gruss an Teplitz’ was obtained by crossing in 
the first instance ‘Sir J. Paxton’ (Bourbon) with ‘ Fellenberg,’ 
(Noisette), the seedling so obtained was again crossed with ‘Papa 
Gontier’ (Tea), and the progeny of this latter union was finally crossed 
with ‘ Gloire des Rosomanes’ (Bourbon) ; and at the recent rose show of 
the German Rose Society, the seedling provisionally selected for the 
special prize of 3,000 marks (£150) and to bear the name ‘ Otto von 
Bismarck ’ was stated to have been obtained by a cross between ‘ Caroline 
Testout ’ and ‘Grossherzogin Maria Dorothea,’ the progeny being crossed 
again with ‘ La France.’ In the grounds of a leading French raiser I was 
recently shown a considerable collection of intermediate forms, possessing 
various desirable qualities of colour, form, or size of petal, which the 
proprietor had selected from his various seedlings for the purpose of cross- 
breeding and seed-bearing, and which are in no one else’s hands but his 
own. 
