140 THE ROSE BOOK 



The variety pyrenaica is remarkably handsome when 

 in fruit. The fruits are scarlet in colour and one to 

 one and a half inches long. Both this and the type grow 

 from three to five feet in height. 



Rosa Banksia, the Banksian rose, is a native of 

 China, whence one of its several forms was introduced 

 more than a century ago. Of climbing habit, it reaches 

 a height of upwards of twenty feet, and in the warmer 

 parts of the country bears its clusters of small, white, frag- 

 rant flowers freely during summer. The branches bear 

 few, and often no, spines, and the leaves are usually 

 composed of five oblong leaflets. The type has white 

 flowers, but there is a variety lutea, with yellow blooms, 

 and both have double-flowered forms. Although the 

 plant grows well on walls in many parts of the country, 

 it only blooms freely in the milder districts. 



Rosa blanda, a North American rose growing from 

 two to four feet high, forms a thicket of reddish, upright 

 shoots clothed with glaucous-green leaves, three to 

 four inches long, and bearing its red flowers, either 

 singly or in large terminal clusters, from axillary shoots. 

 The red fruits are small and round, and are conspicu- 

 ous by reason of the long calyx lobes with which they 

 are crowned. There are several varieties, of which 

 arkansana, Sayi, and Willmottiana are distinct. 



Rosa bourboniana. — This is interesting as being the 

 type from which the various Bourbon roses have origin- 

 ated. It is a hybrid between Rosa indica and Rosa 

 gallica, from which two of our most useful types of 

 roses originated. 



