4 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



known nowadays botanically as Rosa multiflora var. 

 cathayensis and R. laevigata, and these were mentioned 

 by Plukenet in his Almagestum in 1696. Toward the 

 end of the eighteenth century, despite the Napoleonic 

 wars and the fact that each vessel was armed and often 

 had to do battle against foes, the captains of the East- 

 Indiamen, as the Company's ships were called, used 

 to carry home plants which they, or the factory 

 officials at Canton, found growing in the gardens of 

 the Chinese. 



These plants found their way into the gardens of 

 the Company's directors and their friends and from 

 hence into the Royal Gardens, Kew, and elsewhere. 

 To these agencies we owe our earliest varieties of 

 Chrysanthemums, Camellias, Moutan Peonies, China 

 Primrose, China Azaleas, and, what here concerns 

 us chiefly, the first plants of the China Monthly, Tea, 

 and Rambler Roses — parents of the modern Rose. 



Early in the eighteenth century India received 

 through the same source many plants including these 

 and other Roses. It is important to remember this 

 since one of these, the China Monthly Rose (Rosa 

 chinensis), was afterward erroneously considered to 

 be native of India and became generally known as 

 the Bengal Rose. This Rose and its var. semper- 

 florens were introduced by the French into the Isle of 



