II 



HISTORY AND CLASSIFICATION 



23 



included the so-called H.T.s among the large group of 

 Hybrid Perpetuals. for they are both Perpetual and 

 Hybrid. 



The Bourbon Rose was introduced from the Isle of 

 Bourbon about the year 1825. This group is noted for 

 its sweet scent, and also for its very good autumnal 

 qualities, the true Bourbons generally giving better 

 blooms in the second crop. It has been quite a large 

 class. Mr. William Paul enumerates forty— ix varieties 

 in The Rose Garden, bur none of them is likely to 

 remain or be much cultivated now, except the one 

 celebrated sort Souvenir de la Malmaison. It seems 

 to me highly probably that a much larger proportion 

 of our H.P.s have some of the influence of this grand 

 autumnal strain in their constitutions than is generally 

 imagined : and as the two modern Bourbons, Madame 

 Isaac Pereire and Mrs. Paul, are evidently hybrids, it 

 appears advisable that all perpetual forms of this group 

 also should be merged in the large class of H.P.s. 



The China Rose (R. indica). — This group, truest of 

 Perpetuals.. was introduced into this country from China 

 about the year 1789. The Common Pink otherwise 

 known as the Monthly Rose, always in flower, and the 

 Crimson were imported separately about the same 

 time ; and all other varieties have resulted from these 

 types. They are not very strong growers, do best 

 on their own roots in a warm soil, and the flowers, weals 

 and feeble with little or no scent, have little to recom- 

 mend them beyond the one good quality in which they 

 are unsurpassed — constant freedom of bloom, earliest, 

 latest, and throughout the season. 



Many varieties were issued in past years, but, besides 

 the two types. Mrs. Bosanquet. of a waxy ivory tint- 

 was generally considered the only one worth growing 



