THE SUMMER ROSE GARDEN. 41 



roses produce seed abundantly, which is rather a 

 remarkable feature, as so few hybrid plants are 

 fertile. 



Hybrids produced from the French rose im- 

 pregnated with the China rose, are not of such 

 robust and vigorous habits as when the China rose 

 is the female parent ; but, perhaps, this is an asser- 

 tion scarcely borne out by facts, for the exceptions 

 are numerous, and, like many other variations in 

 roses and plants in general, seem to bid defiance 

 to systematic rules. By some cultivators the roses 

 of this division have been much more divided than 

 in my catalogue, forming " Hybrid Noisettes," 

 " Hybrid LTsle de Bourbons," &c. &c. ; but as 

 these all owe their origin to the common China 

 rose, their offspring may with justice be called 

 Hybrid China roses. I have, however, found the 

 Hybrid Bourbon roses distinct in their characters, 

 and they now form a group, or division, in the ca- 

 talogue. 



Those that have been raised from Noisette 

 roses have a tendency to produce their flowers in 

 clusters ; those from Bourbon roses have their 

 * leaves thick, leathery, and round ; those from the 

 Tea-scented have a delicate and grateful scent; 

 but all have those distinguishing family traits as 

 before given, and accordingly they group beauti- 

 fully. As this is the grand object of the amateur 

 cultivator, it seems far more preferable to arrange 

 them as one family, than to make several divisions 



