34 THE ROSE BOOK 



most delicate, and most lovable tints ever seen or even 

 dreamed of by the most devoted "flower lover, often 

 long, pointed buds, and exquisitely recurving petals, 

 and sometimes fragrance — all these divine attributes 

 within the compass of one rose blossom, and can one 

 wonder that the Hybrid Tea came to stay and has 

 stayed to conquer ? 



Having enhsted the S5mipathies of the begiimer, and 

 endeavoured to arouse his enthusiasm for the Hybrid 

 Teas, let me tell the story of their birth. Obviously, if 

 there is anything in a name, they are cross-bred, and 

 close connections of the Tea roses. They were evolved 

 from the Hybrid Perpetual and the Tea rose. Now the 

 Hybrid Perpetual itself is closely related to the Tea 

 rose, hence the autumnal flowering character of some of 

 its varieties. Thus the Tea rose, directly and indirectly, 

 has played the chief part in the production of the present 

 race of Hybrid Teas. They are quite a modem race of 

 roses. There were none at aU until 1873, in which year 

 Cheshunt Hybrid (a vigorous red variety, often still 

 grown as a cUmber) made its appearance ; but now they 

 are legion. Unfortunately, there are some masqueraders 

 under the title that would be more properly placed in 

 the Hybrid Perpetual group, since an autumn crop of 

 blossoms is not to be expected from them. Hybrid 

 Teas are distinctly intermediate between the two older 

 groups, the Hybrid Perpetuals and the Teas. They 

 have, to a great extent, the prolonged blossoming season, 

 the delicate tinting, the long stalks and pointed blooms 

 of the latter, though not so pronouncedly their frag- 



