496 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



abundance near Hamadan and in the fields at the foot of the Elvend Hills. 

 It there grows to a height of three feet. Its branches are slender. Its 

 leaves are sessile, narrow, simple, oval, and serrated at the tips, covered 

 with a fine down, without thorns and without stipules. Its flowers are 

 solitary, the fruit fluffy, almost round, and covered as far as the sepals 

 with fine unequal thorns. Sepals downy and entire. Petals of a rich 

 yellow, with a crimson spot at the base. 



Rosa Hardii was described for the first time in 1836 by Cels 

 (' Annales de Flore et de Pomone,' p. 372), by Paxton in 1843 (Maga- 

 zine of Botany, x. p. 195). It has only retained the flowers of 

 R. berbcrifolia. It is a small bush, growing two or three feet high. Its 

 branches are spreading, slender, flexible, reddish, slightly velvety, armed at 

 the insertion of each petiole with two twin thorns with a single one under- 

 neath thou, forming a triangle. The deep-green leaves are composed of six or 

 seven lanceolate and narrow leaflets, sharply serrated. The flowers are single 

 and numerous, larger than those of R. berberifolia, with golden-yellow 

 petals, the base covered with a purple spot larger than in R. berberifolia. 

 These flowers are occasionally in bunches of two or three, but more 

 generally they are solitary. The peduncle is short and slightly mossy ; 

 the calyx is globular and bristling with numerous fine thorns. The 

 stamens are very numerous and of a beautiful yellow, a little lighter than 

 the petals. Rosa Hardii was put into commerce in 1836 by Messrs. 

 Cels freres. 



This Rose of Hardy's, which is spotted with purple like a Cistus 

 ladaniferus, is sterile ; moreover it has a single flower like that of its 

 two parents. The presence of the spots at the base of the petals is an 

 interesting fact from a horticultural point of view. Do you not see the 

 means offered by this peculiarity of adding this characteristic to some of 

 the finer varieties with double flowers ? To ask the question is to answer 

 it. And why should not this singular peculiarity be fixed ? M. Pernet- 

 Ducher, in a hybrid of which 1 shall speak later, obtained a single- 

 flowered Rose which, instead of purple spots, showed a pure white star at 

 the base of pink petals. 



Hybrids of Rosa lutea. — This yellow Rose, with its brilliant colour, 

 has been the subject of numerous attempts at crossing, of which most 

 have given only negative results.* Monsieur Alegatiere and numerous 

 other hybridisers were completely stranded when attempting to use this 

 I lose as the seed-bearing parent. The reverse cross, on the other hand, 

 appeal's to have some happy surprises for anyone who will try it afresh 

 with various seed -bearing parents. Already M. Pernet-Ducher the 

 younger, with ' Soleil d'or,' has shown the direction to be taken. In 

 1894 M. Pernet showed at the Bureau de l'Assnciation Horticole 

 Lyonnaise two hybrid Roses about which 1 published the following 

 descriptiont : — 



Hybrids of the Yellow Rose. — The beautiful Roses of hybrid origin 

 which adorn our gardens do not always offer a well-marked scientific 



* Rosa Harrisioni passed with certain people as a hybrid between R. lutea and 

 R. pimptnellifblia. See the Journal de la Sociiti Nationale d* Horticulture de France, 

 L901, p. 884. 



t Lyon -Horticole, 1894, p. 266. 



