GROUPING OF GARDEN VARIETIES OF ROSES. 193 



With this group I conclude my task. This is the way 

 in which I would group the garden Roses of the present 

 day. But I believe great alterations and improvements 

 lie before us in the future. To those who are engaged in 

 the floricultural development of the Rose, I would say, do 

 not depend too much on following the beaten track, as the 

 result of doing so will be too great a resemblance in your 

 acquisitions. I have thrown away scores of good seedling 

 Roses because I thought they bore too close a resemblance 

 to pre-existing kinds. The raiser of seedlings should 

 endeavour to break new ground, strike out new combina- 

 tions by bringing the hitherto uncultivated species into his 

 arrangements, and it is reasonable to suppose that in 

 dealing with them in the present as with others in the past 

 he will ultimately be richly awarded. 



ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF EYBED) 

 PERPETUAL EOSES. 



The Gardeners' Magazine? July ^th 1891, p. 396.] 



I DO not think it is possible to say when the first 

 Hybrid Perpetual Rose sprang into existence. It is 

 much easier to speak as to the origin of the group. It is 

 descended from the Four Seasons Rose (R. damascena) 

 through the Damask Perpetual on the one side, and the 

 Gallica, Hybrid China, Bourbon, and almost every other 

 group on the other side. If we go back to the year 1812, 

 when the Rose du Roi was raised in the gardens of St 

 Cloud, near Paris, we shall find in that variety a marked 

 divergence from all pre-existing kinds, and the compilers 

 of catalogues of that day must have been puzzled where to 

 place it. Apparently a hybrid between the Damask 

 Perpetual and the Gallica, it was grouped with the former 

 because it produced flowers in the autumn. In the 

 M 



