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AYRSHIRE AND OTHER~ ROSES. 103 
Gerarde grow the Copper and the Yellow more than four hun- 
dred years ago? In truth, did he. All bloom on the ripened 
shoots of the previous year’s growth, therefore they must not 
be cut back in spring, but old, weak wood must be thinned out.’ 
Ayrshires. 
You can have no hardier Roses than the Ayrshires, which are 
forms of Rosa repens capreolata (the National, by the way, 
sticks to the old name, now considered merely a synonym, Arven- 
sis). The Ayrshires grow well on walls, arbours, and old trees. 
They bloom in clusters. Bennett’s Seedling, often grown under 
the name of Thoresbyana, a white, is perhaps the best known 
nowadays, but the old pink-edged Dundee Rambler is not for- 
gotten. The Ayrshires must be very little pruned. Thinning 
out old flowered wood is all that is necessary. 
Banksians. 
There are two well-known Banksian Roses, the White, Bank- 
sie, and the Yellow. They are strong growers, given a warm, 
sheltered wall, but have very small double flowers. No hard 
cutting back, if you please, for the Banksians. Do it, and you 
get no flowers. Thin, certainly. 
Bourbons. 
Where do the Bourbons begin, where do they end? When 
we learn that the Bourbon Rose is Rosa indica borbonica, a 
variety of the China or Monthly Rose, we only learn half the 
story. There is Bourbon blood in the Hybrid Perpetuals, with- 
out a doubt. The section can never be unimportant while it 
contains the dear old Souvenir de la Malmaison, with its wealth 
of silvery flowers. Then there is Madame Isaac Pereire; and, if 
we stretch a point in a sort of go-as-you-please business, there 
are the pretty Blairii No. 2, a rare old climber, and Charles 
Lawson, grandest of “specimen” Roses. Best of all, perhaps, 
there is Bardou Job, which is flowering gloriously on the wall 
of my house at this moment. The National catalogue makes a 
H.T. of him. Bardou Job is a very rich Rose, only semi-double, 
but a wonderful bloomer. 
Boursaults. 
A small class, no use for exhibition, but good for growing on 
walls, where they give barrowloads of flowers. Think of 
Amadis, crimson, and of Gracilis, pink. Thin the wood, no 
more. 
Briers (Penzance). 
With what marvellous patience Lord Penzance must have 
worked to evolve these from the Sweet Brier, Rosa rubiginosa! 
