63 



CLIMBING ROSES. 



Division I. 

 TnE AYKSHIRE ROSE. 



(rosa ARVENSIS IIYBRIDA.) 



It is the opinion of sonae cultivators, that the 

 varieties of the Ayrshire Rose have been origi- 

 nated from the Rosa arvensis, or creeping single 

 White Rose of our woods and hedges. But this 

 is contradicted by botanists, who assert that the 

 original Ayrshire Rose was raised in Scotland 

 from foreign rose seed : it may have been ; but to 

 judge from its habit, I feel no hesitation in assert- 

 ing that it is merely a seedling hybrid from our 

 Rosa arvensis, having acquired much additional 

 vigour, as all hybrid roses nearly invariably do, 

 from some accidental impregnation. Perhaps no 

 rose can be more luxuriant than this ; for the 

 Single Ayrshire, and that semi-double variety 

 known as the Double White, will often make 

 shoots in one season twenty or thirty feet in 

 length. Several of our prettiest vari sties were 

 raised from seed by Mr. Martin of Rose Angle, 

 Dundee ; the Ayrshire Queen, the only dark 

 Ayrshire Rose known, was originated by myself, 

 in 1835, from the blush Ayrshire, impregnated 

 with the Tuscany Rose. But one seed germi- 

 nated ; and the plant produced has proved a com- 



