^ The Old "Koses f% 



with Zephyrine Drouhin. Why is this glorious old rose 

 (perhaps it would be more correct to say * oldish,' for it 

 was not introduced till 1868) not more grown in small 

 gardens ? One sees it in nearly every large garden, but it 

 is also one of the roses for the small garden. And what an 

 array of virtues this rose has ! It is very vigorous, it 

 blooms from June to October, its fragrance is delicious, 

 it is thornless, it will thrive on a chalk soil, and it is one 

 of the few roses which will grow near the smoky atmo- 

 sphere of a large town. And if I could grow only one 

 other Bourbon rose, it would be the vivid Madame Isaac 

 Pereire. True, she is only at her best in autumn, but her 

 fragrance is supremely lovely. For it is as true now as 

 when Rivers wrote nearly a hundred years ago, that the 

 Bourbon roses are roses for every garden, ' For the Queen 

 of Flowers boasts no members of her court more beauti- 

 ful, their fragrance is delicate and pleasing, more par- 

 ticularly in the autumn.' 



The Fairy rose (R. Lawrenciana), a variant of the China 

 Monthly, was named after Miss Lawrence, of rose-book 

 fame. Sweet introduced this rose from Mauritius in 

 1 8 10, and named it after Miss Lawrence, who was 

 then at the height of her fame. The origin of this rose 

 remains to this day unknown. It is a China rose, dwarfed 

 in all its parts, but at what date some skilful Chinese 

 grower produced this little Fairy rose we do not know. 



The cultivated type of China Monthly crossed with 

 R. gallica gave us the Hybrid China Roses. The Hybrid 

 China and the Hybrid Bourbon roses crossed with 

 R. damascena gave us the Hybrid Perpetual. The first 

 real Hybrid Perpetuals were sent out by the French 

 breeder, M. Laffay. Between i860 and 1900 the Hybrid 



K !29 



