REVIVAL OF THE OLDER ROSES. 



55 



Poor Louis XIV. was richer in Carnations, of which he had 

 three hundred sorts, than in Roses. De la Quintinie, in 1727, 

 grew only B. centifolia of Holland (I wonder if this is the 

 Rose des Peintres or Rose de Cels of Redoute), Damask, 

 Gallica, Alba, Provence, Rose de tous les mois, Double Yellow 

 (B. sulphured) — not a large collection for so great a monarch. 

 In England we had the marbled and double white and red 

 Sweetbriars ; and Janet's Pride, refound by Mrs. Whitwell of 

 Denbigh, seems to be the double sweetbriar of Aiton's collection. 



Of the second series, the old Roses which since the beginning 

 of the century came and went, and have recome, we owe much 

 to the monumental work of Redoute, unquestionably the finest 

 book on Roses ever published. We have in Miss Lawrence's and 

 Andrew's Roses no reason to be ashamed of our Rose literature of 

 that period. One is pleased to find Redoute quotes them with 

 approval. I do not know if the Versailles Rose de tous les mois 

 was B. semper flor ens or B. indica, or the later received China 

 Rose, but I find the common double pink China Roses were 

 introduced in 1793 into a Hertfordshire garden, and I have 

 heard my father say that it was by means of the successful 

 culture of this and the later coming crimson China Rose that 

 my grandfather, Adam Paul, in the first years of the century, 

 made the early reputation of the Cheshunt nursery for Roses. 



In Redoute's times the Gallica Roses were what the Hybrid 

 Perpetuals have been to the growers from 1840 to now. He has 

 a long enough list to fill the whole of the Greek alphabet, and at 

 the end to begin numbering, and when in 1845 you turn to the Rose 

 catalogues of the period, and find the culmination of the family 

 from 1807 to 1845, there are three pages of names. The Pope, 

 King Louis Philippe, and William IV. grace, or are graced by 

 their names being attached to Roses; there are Grands and 

 Glories, tragediennes and heathen gods in the Gallica Roses as 

 well as among the H.P.'s. 



I came just as they were disappearing. I recollect Ohl, 

 which mostly had a green eye ; Boule de Nanteuil, which had 

 shorter petals towards the edge of the flower. As far as I am 

 concerned, I do not wish to see any of them back again. In the 

 words of the Mikado, " They'll none of them be missed." 



The Provence Roses had become nearly as numerous as the 

 Gallicas. To the old kinds had been added Crested, the Lettuce- 



