CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROSE. 43 



types are natives of the south of Europe, and probably of Persia, to which 

 country we owe its finest development, the well-known Persian Yellow. 



The Double Yellow Rose, Rosa Siilphnrea, remarkable for its beauty, and, 

 in our climate, notorious for its intractable and uncertain character, is regarded 

 by some botanists as belonging to a group distinct from the preceding. The 

 single yellow, from which it must have sprung, has been found wild in the 

 north of India, 



The Sweet Brier, found wild in various parts of the world, is too well 

 known to need further notice. The American variety differs distinctly from 

 the European. 



The Scotch roses owe their origin to the dwarf wild rose of Scotland. 

 The Ayrshire is a family of climbing roses, originating from the wild trailing 

 rose. Rosa Arvensis, common in the British Islands. The best of them are 

 said, however, to be hybrids between this rose and other species. The Bour- 

 sault roses are descendant of Rosa Alpina, a native of the Alps, and no family 

 is more clearly marked by distinctive features. The Sempervirens and the 

 Multiflora are, with us at least, less familiar. Both are climbers, like the 

 former, the one orginating from a wild rose of Italy, the other from a wild rose 

 of Japan. The Banksia, with its smopth, shining leaves, and slender, green 

 steins, is well known in every greenhouse. Its progenitor is a native of China 

 or Tartary, and the improved varieties are chiefly due to the labors of Chinese 

 florists. 



There is another race of climbers, held in great scorn by foreign florists, 

 but admirably adapted to our climate, under whose influences they put forth 

 beauties by no means contemptible. These are the progeny of the wild 

 Michigan or Prairie rose, rampant growers, and generally sturdy enough to 

 outface our hardest winters. The best of them, however, the Baltimore Belle, 

 is evidently the offspring of a foreign marriage, which, while contributing 

 fragrance and beauty to the rugged race of the prairies, has detracted some- 

 thing from its hardihood. The union, probably accidental, seems to have been 

 with the Tea rose or the Noisette. 



Of the foregoing groups, all, except the Damask Perpetual, are once-bloom- 

 ing. The following have, to a greater or less extent, the desirable character 

 of a continued or successive bloom. 



The Macartney rose is a wild rose of China, from which a few improved 

 varieties have been raised from seed. Its evergreen shining foliage is its 

 most attractive feature. The Microphylla or small-leaved rose is closely akin 

 to the Macartney, and, like the latter, is a native of the East. Neither will 

 bear our climate without shelter. 



The Musk is a rose much more familiarly known. It descends from a 

 Persian of Syrian progenitor, and its vigorous growth, rich clusters of bloom, 

 and peculiar fragrance, have long made it a favorite. But by far the most in- 

 teresting and valuable among the unmixed races of ever-blooming roses, are 

 the numberless offspring of Rosa Indica, in its several varieties. To it we 



