ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



CHAPTER I 

 THE STORY OF THE MODERN ROSE 



THIS UNIVERSAL FAVORITE COMING OUT OF THE EAST 



IS THE PRODUCT OF BUT A FEW SPECIES — LATENT 



POSSIBILITIES YET BEFORE THE ROSE LOVER 



THE establishing of a trading factory at Canton, 

 in southern China, by the English East India 

 Company toward the close of the seventeenth 

 century, would appear to have very little — if, indeed, 

 anything — to do with the development of modern 

 horticulture in general and the Rose in particular. 

 But as a matter of fact it has had a great deal to do 

 with both, and garden lovers generally (though they 

 may not know it) owe a big debt to the directors and 

 officers of that grand old Company. The Company 

 met with great opposition from the Chinese and 

 others and it was a century before it fully established 

 itself in China. Nevertheless, in the earliest days 

 of its career there, an officer of the Company sent to 

 England some dried plants, among them two Roses, 



