270 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE CHAP. 
especially to those who had hazy ideas of what 
colour ‘‘amaranth” is. The word means “fade-. 
less’’ or ‘everlasting,’ and seems to have been 
applied to the cockscomb family of flowers because 
of their lasting qualities. In describing a new 
Rose of purplish crimson, the French raisers there- 
fore called it ‘‘amaranthe,”’ 7.e. ‘‘ cockscomb 
colour,’ a fair description of the shade of Xavier 
Olibo. The blooms come divided sometimes, but 
it is often a fine Rose, with centre sometimes 
incurved and sometimes with a fine point: a good 
lasting bloom, of full size. It will not answer 
on poor soil, must be ‘‘liberally treated,’ and 
from its weak growth is necessarily not good as a 
free bloomer or autumnal, or suitable for general 
cultivation. 
HYBRID TEAS 
I have already (p. 26) endeavoured to show that, 
in making a separate class of the Roses that are 
crossed with the Teas, difficulty is sure to arise 
sooner or later in classifying varieties, which have 
a predominance of the Tea strain, but yet some 
slight strain from a distant cross with some other 
race. But, in deference to the general opinion, I 
have placed here those varieties which are generally 
reckoned as Hybrid Teas. As it is, there are a 
few that are not very easily distinguishable from 
the Hybrid Perpetuals. Some of the very finest 
of all Roses, such as La France and Mrs. W. J. 
Grant, are to be found among them, and all colours, 
though as yet yellow is only present in a few 
instances. Its fast increasing popularity is shown 
