CHAPTER XI 



YORK AND LANCASTER ROSES 



There are many roses with variegated petals, 

 but two only rank as York and Lancaster roses. 

 The others I dismiss at once, for though Mr 

 Rivers speaks favourably of Village Maid or La 

 Villageoise, CEillet Parfait, Perle des Panach^es, 

 and Tricolor de Flandres, they have never 

 obtained a footing in English gardens, and from 

 my own experience of them I should not think 

 it likely that they ever will. I shall confine my 

 remarks, therefore, to the two kinds which are 

 best known, and it will be better to begin with 

 the description of them, and then to say some- 

 thing of their history and literary associations. 



Of the two kinds one has certainly been known 

 in England more than three hundred years. It 

 is a variety of Rosa Damascena, but its old name 

 was R. versicolor. It is an upright rose, often 

 growing six feet high, and in good seasons bear- 

 ing a large number of semi-double roses, of which 

 some are white, some are pink, and some white 

 and pink combined. The flowers are not large, 

 but it is a very pretty rose, very hardy, and can be 

 increased by cuttings or suckers ; it produces a 

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