GARDEN ROSES. l8l 



* Rosiers de Provins/ and Provins surely is in France, 

 department Seine-et-Marne." Yes ! but with every grate- 

 ful recognition of the debt which we owe to French 

 Rosarians, it is well known that in this instance the claim 

 cannot be proved. The birthplace of the Rose called 

 Gallica is unknown, disputed, like the birthplace of Homer. 

 " It is from Asia," says one ; " it is the Rose of Miletus, 

 mentioned by Pliny." " It was first found," writes a 

 second, *' upon Italian soil." " It came from Holland," 

 cries Tertius, " beyond a doubt, and Van Eden was the 

 man who introduced it."* 



But I have asked this question with an ulterior view. It 

 is time, I think, for some alterations in the nomenclature 

 and classification of the Rose. When summer Roses — 

 Roses, that is, which bloom but once — were almost the only 

 varieties grown, and when hybridisers found a splendid 

 market for novelties in any quantities, new always and 

 distinct in namey the subdivisions yet remaining in some 



* The French Roses, so called, have all been derived from the original 

 Tuscany. Van Eden and others of Haarlem raised all the early varieties in 

 Holland; and the first man in France who succeeded in raising new varieties 

 from them was Descemet, who resided at St Denis. Vibert bought his stock, 

 and continued the raising of seedling Rose-trees. — Horticultural Magazine, 

 i. 282. 



