10 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



Rose is common in Yunnan, southwest China, and 

 has given rise to a race of double-flowered Roses 

 which are cultivated for ornament by the Chinese 

 in that region. This Giant Rose is very fragrant and 

 I believe it to be the prototype and parent of the Tea- 

 scented Roses so long cultivated by the Chinese. The 

 prototype of the China Monthly Rose (Rosa chin- 

 ensis, var. spontanea) was first found growing wild 

 in 1885, by A. Henry, in the province of Hupeh, central 

 China, and in this same region the wild form of the 

 Banksian Rose with single white flowers is extraor- 

 dinarily abundant; so also is the Cherokee Rose; 

 and further west, in Szechuan, the prototype of the 

 Small-leaved Rose (R. Roxburghii) is one of the most 

 common wayside shrubs. 



The genus Rosa is confined to the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere and its members are found scattered over the 

 cool and warm temperate and the sub-tropic regions 

 of Asia, Europe, and North America. Some of them 

 are found in northern Africa but no species is endemic 

 there. It is an exceedingly difficult genus to classify 

 and botanists differ greatly in the estimate of the 

 number of species. One botanist asserts that all may 

 be included under three species; in the Index 

 Kewensis more than five hundred species are enum- 

 erated. In the Arnold Arboretum Herbarium twenty- 



