420 ROSA 



Var. FLORE PLENO has double white flowers and is a very pretty rambling 

 rose, useful for quickly covering unsightly banks, etc. 



R. BANKSLE, R. Brown. BANKSIAN ROSE. 



A climbing shrub, up to 40 ft. high, with slender, smooth, unarmed shoots. 

 Leaves with three or five leaflets, which are i to 2.\ ins. long, one-third to 

 half as wide ; oblong-lanceolate, pointed, simply toothed, smooth on both 

 surfaces except that the midrib beneath and common stalk are sometimes 

 slightly downy ; stipules narrow, and soon falling away. Flowers white or 

 yellow, \\ ins. diameter, numerous in an umbel, each flower on a stalk about 

 i in. long, slightly fragrant ; sepals \ in. long, ovate, entire, downy within. 

 Fruit globose, about the size of a pea, with the sepals fallen away. 



Native of China, where it has long been cultivated. It was a garden form, 

 one with double white flowers (FLORE ALBO PLENO, Bot. Mag., t. 1954), that 

 was first introduced to Kew in 1807 by Wm. Kerr when collecting for that 

 institution in China. In 1824 the yellow double-flowered variety was intro- 

 duced by Mr Parks for the Horticultural Society. The single yellow form 

 (LUTE A) appeared about 1870 (see Bot. Mag., t. 7171). All this time what 

 ought perhaps to be regarded as the type the form with single white 

 flowers was unknown. From the following note, contributed to the Royal 

 Horticultural Society's Journal^ 1909, p. 218, it would appear, however, to 

 have existed in the British Isles some years previous to Kerr's introduction of 

 the double white form in 1807 : 



"Four years ago I found a rose growing on the wall of Megginch Castle, Strathtay, 

 Scotland, which seemed to be a very slender-growing form of R. Banksiae. Cape. 

 Drummond of Megginch told me it was a rose that his ancestor, Robt. Drummond, had 

 brought with other plants from China in 1796. This old rose had been repeatedly cut 

 to the ground by severe winters, and had rarely, if ever, flowered. The impression, 

 however, was that it was white and very small. Cuttings which I took to Nice flowered 

 this year, proving themselves to be the typical single white Banksian rose, so long sought 

 for and hidden away in this nook of Scotland for more th m one hundred years." 



The Banksian rose in all its forms is one of the most lovely of all, but 

 unfortunately it is too tender and too fond of the sun to thrive in any but the 

 more favoured parts of the British Isles. The yellow-flowered forms are 

 considered the hardier, and will succeed on a warm wall in the south of 

 England. But they find their most congenial conditions in the heat and 

 brilliant sunlight of S. France, Italy, Dalmatia, etc., where these roses, but 

 especially the double yellow, make the chief glory of the gardens in spring. 



R. BEGGERIANA, Sckrenk, 



A shrub 6 to 10 ft. high ; stems and branches armed with light-coloured, 

 hooked spines, ^ to ^ in. long, often arranged in pairs at the base of each 

 leaf-stalk, and with numerous others scattered near the base of the stems. 

 Leaflets five to nine, ^ to J in. long, oval or slightly obovate, simply toothed 

 except near the base, smooth on both surfaces or downy beneath and on the 

 common stalk, grey-green. Flowers white, i to i| ins. across, produced in 

 clusters up to nine or more. Fruit globose, smooth, red at first, finally 

 purplish, 3- to ^ in. across, sepals ultimately falling away. 



Native of Central Asia, the leaves having a sweet-briar scent ; flowers 

 unpleasantly scented ; introduced about 1881. A rose nearly allied to the 

 above is R. ANSERINIFOLIA, Boissier, found in Afghanistan, Beluchistan, etc., 

 which appears to differ only in the leaves being downy on both sides. 



