II HISTORY AND CLASSIFICATION 15 



best grown as a bush, and requires close pruning. The 

 original is pink, but there are other varieties of this 

 class, white and striped. 



A sub-variety of the Provence is the Pompon Rose. 

 These are simply Roses in miniature, which should not 

 be confounded with the Polyanthas, many of which 

 are quite as small, or with the Lawrencianse or Fairy 

 Roses, which being Chinas are perpetual. 



The Moss Rose is a more important sub- variety of the 

 Provence, the Crested Rose forming a sort of link 

 between them. This group, so well known for the 

 moss-like covering of the calyx, has been so popular 

 that great efforts have been made to increase the 

 number of varieties and improve the quality of the 

 flowers. Mr. Cranston, writing in 1855, says that even 

 then several hundred varieties of the Moss Rose had 

 been raised, but though different colours, from white to 

 crimson, have been gained, and one or two perpetual sorts 

 have been issued, very little success in the way of actual 

 improvement has been achieved, the common or old 

 Moss Rose, to which the N.R.S. catalogue gives the 

 date of 1596, being still the best in the popular bud state. 

 There are now so many beautiful buttonhole Teas 

 very much superior in beauty of colour, that it seems 

 likely that Moss Roses, which are only valuable in the 

 bud, not of long and pointed form, and apparently 

 incapable of improvement, will suffer somewhat from 

 their rivalry ; but many, no doubt, will still be found to 

 cherish them from sentiment or old associations. 



The Moss Roses do not do well as standards, and 

 some of them are not very strong growers. They will 

 grow on manetti, but are generally considered to do 

 best on their own roots, and should be pruned hard, 

 and highly cultivated. Some miniature Moss Roses 



