194 DEVELOPMENT OF HYBRID PERPETUAL ROSES. 



"Nomenclature du genre Rosier" of M. de Pronville 

 (Paris, 1818), the R. damascena perpetua (Four Seasons) 

 is spoken of as still rare in our gardens, but there were 

 then at least three other varieties of it known under the 

 names of R. portlandica bifera, bifera, and bifera alba. 

 M. Vibert's catalogue of Roses of 1820 offers eleven 

 varieties of Four Seasons Roses, among which is Palmyre, 

 raised in 1817, and following, except in point of colour, the 

 Rose du Roi. These, and later on a few others, might 

 have been called Hybrid Perpetuals. But there was no 

 such class then. The Rose du Roi, in a catalogue of eight 

 hundred and thirty one varieties, was classed as a Hybrid 

 Gallica. There were Damask Perpetual Roses, and plenty 

 of them, more than fifty years ago, and they differed so 

 much in appearance that they formed a very incongruous 

 group; still in a comprehensive Rose catalogue of 1837 

 now before me, there is no such group as Hybrid Per- 

 petual ! 



Matters horticultural moved slowly then. But there 

 was soon to be a general awakening in regard to the 

 improvement of garden flowers, and certain keen-eyed 

 reasoning horticulturists saw in the marked, although slow 

 development of the Rose, a new field in which they might 

 enter and work with brilliant prospects of success. New 

 varieties were consequently appearing in greater numbers 

 every year, but they were for a time still classed with the 

 Damask Perpetuals, although getting further and further 

 away from the first forms of that group. So late as the 

 year 1840, there was no group recognised as Hybrid 

 Perpetual, although amongst perpetuals were ranked three 

 evident hybrids, Rose du Roi, Bernard, and De Neuilly, the 

 two former allied to the Damask Perpetuals, and the latter 

 approaching more closely to the group Bourbon. In 1844 

 was published " La Rose," &c., by J. L. A Loisleleur 

 Deslongchamps, in which "Roses Perpetuelles remontantes" 

 figure as a separate group by the side of Damask Per- 

 petuals. These and others form the group of "hybrides 



