ROSES 181 



as a bramble. I am very fond of this rose, in all its 

 varieties ; it is, as I said before, almost ever-flowering, 

 and it has been the parent of many of the finest hybrid 

 roses. From Japan comes the beautiful Ramanas rose, 

 R. rugosa, a rose unsurpassed where it will grow well, 

 as it does in my garden, with splendid thick foliage, 

 and large handsome fruit, which are said to make a 

 good preserve. 



But it is from N. India and the Himalayas that some 

 of our best species of roses come. This is probably the 

 native home of the musk rose, as it is of the Eosa muUi- 

 flora, a charming rose, rightly so named, for though the 

 flowers individually are small, the trusses of flowers are 

 wonderful : I have counted on one truss (meaning by 

 that the part projecting beyond the leaves) over six 

 hundred flowers. This species also is the parent of 

 many hybrids, but in all of them one ciu-ious resem- 

 blance to the parent is always seen in the finely 

 serrated stipules; each stipule is like the finest saw. 

 I can only mention one rose from Persia, though we 

 get more than one from there, and that is the R. herberi- 

 folia, a rose that difi"ers from all other roses in having a 

 single leaf instead of the usual three, five, seven, or 

 more divisions, and which from its earliest introduction 

 has been the despair of gardeners. It is now at last 

 successfully grown at Kew and in the Isle of Wight, 



