154 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. III. 



lands. Here and there on the stem are rather broad-hooked prickles 

 with small straight prickles between them. The bright pink flowers 

 are borne in small clusters. The large, round, scarlet fruit is usually 

 rough and viscid. 



The pasture I'ose is very common along sandy roadsides, and in 

 sandy hay and grain fields. The plant is mostly bushy and grows 

 from six inches to five feet in height. The stem is usually beset with 

 small straight prickles. The pink flowers are solitary or in small 

 clusters. The small, round, red, fruit is rough and viscid. 



The Virginia rose resembles the pasture rose very closely but gen- 

 erally grows higher. The stem is usually armed with numerous stout 

 hooked prickles. The cinnamon rose (R. cinnamonea L.) and the 

 sweetbriar (R. ruhiginosa L.) often escape from cultivation. Both 

 of these are easy to recognize. 



The horticultural rose is probably the oldest cultivated and the 

 best loved flower of history. Some two thousand years ago the citi- 

 zens of Athens crowned it the "queen of flowers." Herodotus, the 

 historian, describes roses in the garden of King Midas that had sixty 

 petals. Down through history varieties of roses have increased until 

 today the number is almost infinite. Nearly all of our cultivated 

 roses are the products of hybridization. Many have been crossed and 

 recrossed for such a long time that it is nearly impossible to trace the 

 native stock from which they have sprung. Many of our most beauti- 

 ful varieties have come from very lowly ancestors. Wilson, for years 

 the plant explorer of the Department of Agriculture, writes "Roses 

 are ordinarily 'made' not discovered. They are the products of the 

 gardener's skill. I wish that I could take the readers of this work to 

 the mountain fastnesses of Central and West China, to certain re- 

 mote parts of Japan — there introduce him to the wild types from which 

 have evolved our Killarney, Mme. CaroHne Testout and so forth." 



Our common cultivated roses can be divided into the following 

 groups; tea, hybrid tea, the polyanthus, the hardy climbing, and the 

 hybrid perpetual. The tea roses are of a very complex ancestry. 

 The first hybrid tea rose. La France, was produced by Guilot Fils in 

 1867. They crossed a hardy blooming hybrid perpetual rose, Mme. 

 Victor Verdier with Mme. Bravy, a constant blooming tea rose. Two 

 Chinese roses R. odorata and R. chinensis crossed with the Province 

 and the damask rose are a few of the ancestors of La France. Most 

 of the favorite varieties of today are hybrid tea roses, among which 

 are Admiral Ward, Angelus, Columbia, America, Premier, Ophelia 

 with its sports, and the White Killarney. 



