22 



THE BOOK OF THE ROSE 



CHAP. 



Autumnal Flowering or Perpetual Roses. 



The Hybrid Perpetual Rose. — This wonderful group 

 seems to have originated from several sources ; indeed, 

 it may no doubt be said with Truth that certain strains 

 of almost all other cultivated Roses have now been 

 incorporated, by accident or design, into some of the 

 members of this wide and varied class. It seems to 

 me vain to try and trace the parentage of the most 

 celebrated varieties. The pedigrees of most of them 

 were absolutely unknown even to the raisers, since 

 systematic hybridising and careful choice of seed- 

 parents was not practised by the French Rosarians 

 who issued our most noted sorts. Seeds were sown 

 in immense quantities, and the cross fertilisation 

 effected by insects or other agencies was relied on to 

 produce the variations which ensued. 



As always happens, however, according to the doctrine 

 of evolutionists, certain marked types resulted which 

 were not only distinct, but had also the power of im- 

 pressing their characteristics upon then descendants, 

 forming thus new groups. Victor Verdier, La France, 

 and Baroness Rothschild are instances of these 

 new departures, accounts of which may be found in 

 Chapter XII. 



Hybrid Teas are at present an unsatisfactory class. 

 It is very difficult even now to draw a decided line 

 as to where there is sufficient strain from the Tea- to 

 warrant the division ; and it seems more than probable 

 that the task will become almost impossible when 

 the Hybrid Teas are crossed back again into the 

 H.P.s or Teas, as they have been already in two or 

 three instances, For this reason I have throughout 



