17 2 



Account of the Rosa Bank size. 



publication of the second edition of the Hortus Kewensis* 

 it received its name, in compliment to the excellent Lady of 

 Sir Joseph Banks.*!* This circumstance having caused the 

 plant to be a favourite at Spring Grove, its cultivation 

 became a subject of more particular attention in the garden 

 there; the experiments tried with it were successful, and 

 thus its name has happily been the means of converting 

 what seemed to be an insignificant green-house plant, into 

 a hardy and splendid creeping shrub. 



The Rosa Banksiae, soon after its introduction, must have 

 produced some flowers, for it is stated in the Hortus Kew- 

 ensis (the volume in which it is noticed having been pub- 

 lished in 1811), that its time of flowering is June and July ; 

 this account is founded on a recorded fact ; but the circum- 

 stance was probably accidental, since the time was not its 

 natural season, and I have never heard of any other instance 

 of its flowering until it first blossomed at Spring Grove.J 

 It was usually treated as a green-house plant, and kept in 



* Hortus Kewensis, second edition, vol. iii. 258. 



f M. Thory, who furnishes the descriptions which accompany the figures of 

 Redoutes Roses, has in his observations on the Rosa Banksiae given an instance 

 of his want of knowledge of the situation and history of persons of eminence in 

 England, which will probably excite a smile in all who read this note. He 

 states that " Ce Rosier a 6te dedie a Lady Bancks, epouse de THonorable M. 

 Bancks, Fun des savants de TexpeMition du Capitaine Cook.' 1 (Les Roses par 

 Redoute', volume ii. p. 44.) 



% M. Boursault succeeded in making it flower under glass, at Paris, in 

 1819 ; he obtained a plant from England in the preceding year, and turned it 

 out of its pot into a border of heath mould, in his conservatory, where it grew 

 to the length of forty feet, and produced a great number of flowers. See Re- 

 dout e"s Roses, above referred to. 



