530 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



duction of Mr. Bennett's 1 Her Majesty ' set us thinking. Magnificent as 

 a specimen-flower when seen in the exhibition tent, as a garden Rose it 

 lacked that something which can best be expressed in modern Italian as 

 simpatica. Few and scentless were its flowers, which by being perched 

 on the top of a stiff stem savoured of stubbornness and self-conceit. Was 

 it for this that we had expelled from our collection ' Aimee Vibert,' 

 ' Maiden's Blush,' 'Mrs. Bosanquet,' ' Felicite Perpetue,' and all our 

 grandmothers' Roses, with their exquisite scent and masses of flowers ? 

 We resolved to have them back again, and with them anything that was 

 as free in flowering and perpetual. 



II. The Rise and Pbogeess of the Hybeid Tea. 



This was the psychological moment for the advent of the Hybrid 

 Teas. By reference to a trade catalogue we can trace their advance. 

 In the catalogue for 1890 we find six, and then two years later, and every 

 two succeeding years to 1901, we find the number of Hybrid Teas to be 

 twelve, thirty-one, forty-three, forty-nine, and sixty-five. These returns 

 are taken from the catalogue of a grower who is most careful in his selec- 

 tion, so careful indeed that some varieties are omitted which, in my 

 opinion, might well be included. But what do these figures show us ? 

 Just this, that during the last ten years Hybrid Teas have increased 

 from six to sixty-five. In support of this evidence let us call upon the 

 " Official Catalogue " of the National Rose Society. In 1882 this Society 

 published its first catalogue, which, with the exception of the Bourbon 

 ' Souvenir de la Malmaison,' contained nothing but Hybrid Perpetuals 

 and Teas. In the second edition of 1884 three Elybrid Teas found 

 a place, these being ' Cheshunt Hybrid,' ' Reine Marie Henriette,' 

 and 'Longworth Rambler.' In the edition of 1893 there were twenty, 

 and in the last edition, that of 1899, there are no less than forty, showing 

 an increase of 100 per cent, in six years. What these statistics iore- 

 shadow I leave to the consideration of the Conference ; but on one point 

 we shall pr jbably all agree, that since our last Conference the progress of 

 the Hybrid Tea has been phenomenal. 



III. What is a Hybeid Tea ? 



This is a question the Conference might well endeavour to determine. 

 We greatly need a definition. It is difficult to reconcile the grouping 

 together of ' Marquise de Salisbury ' and ' Caroline Testout,' the former 

 showing affinity with R. spinosissima, the latter, especially in its armature, 

 with li. canina. It is more difficult still to disc -ver the dividing line 

 between ' Kaiserin Augusta Victoria,' Hybrid Tea, and ' Maman Cochet ' 

 Tea (fig. 153) ; and what prevents ' Gruss an Teplitz ' from being classed as a 

 China ? Rabbits are excellent judges of Teas and of Roses possessing any 

 strain of Tea, but whilst leaving untouched many so-called Hybrid Teas, 

 they are most partial to 1 Suzanne Marie Rodocanache,' Hybrid Per- 

 petual. Why is this variety excluded from the Hybrid Tea group? 

 Again, are we to conclude that the apparent diversity among Hybrid 

 Teas is a result of heredity ? It is stated that the first Hybrid Per- 

 petual was obtained by crossing the Hybrid China with a Damask 



