II 



HISTORY AND CLASSIFICATION 



9 



in the Middle Ages followed the Fall of Rome, the 

 culture of the Rose was probably somewhat neglected ; 

 but gradually, no doubt, as the pursuits of peace began 

 to prevail, gardening, and with it the love of the queen 

 of flowers, revived. 



The National Rose Society gives 1596 as the date 

 at which it is known that the Centifolia (Provence or 

 Cabbage) Rose, the common Moss, and the Austrian 

 Yellow and Austrian Copper were grown. But Rose 

 progress was very slow till about 1815, when in spite 

 of the troublous times, Mons. Vibert, the earliest of 

 the great French raisers, founded his nursery. The 

 way had been prepared for him by the patronage of 

 the Empress Josephine, who made Roses fashionable, 

 and caused search to be made for all existing varieties 

 for her garden at Malmaison. Mons. Laffay soon 

 followed Mons. Vibert, and after them we have a grand 

 array of famous French Rosarians, Jacques, Hardy, the 

 Guillots, Lacharme, Gonod, Pernet, Ducher, Margottin, 

 the Verdiers, Levet, Liabaud, Nabonnand and others, 

 to whom we are still indebted for the majority of our 

 best Roses. 



Mons. Desportes in 1829 issued a catalogue con- 

 taining the names of 2000 varieties, but the majority 

 of these were no doubt worthless or not distinct, and 

 by 1860 there were still but few Roses which we should 

 now consider good, though we had General Jacqueminot 

 and Senateur Vaisse among H.P.s, and among Teas, 

 Devoniensis, Madame Bravy, Rubens, and Souvenir 

 d'Elise, the last still unequalled as the finest of all show 

 Roses. 



But taste, experience, and discrimination on the one 

 hand, and demand on the other, were now beginning to 

 tell, and in the next five years (1860-65) the following 



