36 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
R. frovincialis alba, White Provence or Rose Unique. This Rose was 
apparently found in a garden in the Eastern Counties in 1775. Andrews 
(1805) states that "its introduction in 1777 was entirely accidental, 
through the medium of the late Mr. Greenwood, Nurseryman, a great 
admirer and collector of Roses, who, in an excursion which he usually 
made every summer, in passing the front garden of Mr. Richmond, 
a baker near Needham in Suffolk, there perceived the present charming 
plant, where it had been placed by a carpenter who found it near a 
hedge on the contiguous premises of a Dutch merchant, whose old 
mansion he was repairing. Mr. Greenwood, requesting a little cutting 
of it, received from Mr. Richmond the whole plant ; when Mr. Green- 
wood, in return for a plant so valuable, presented him with an elegant 
silver cup with the Rose engraved upon it ; and which in commemora- 
tion has furnished food for many a convivial hour. It is of dwarf 
growth and remains in flower nearly six weeks longer than the other 
Province Roses, which renders it still the more estimable. 
" We wish it had been in our power to have accounted for its having 
been till so lately a stranger to us, and whence indigenous ; but at 
present our information is entirely confined to the knowledge of its 
casual introduction, and until some further light is thrown upon 
the subject to elucidate its genealogy, we shall regard it as a native ! " 
Another account is that of Rivers (1840) who states : " The Unique 
Provence is a genuine English Rose, which, I believe, was found by 
Mr. Greenwood, then of the Kensington Nursery, in some cottage 
garden, growing among plants of the Common Cabbage-Rose. This 
variety was at first much esteemed and plants of it were sold at very 
high prices. Most probably this was not a seedling from the Old 
Cabbage Rose, as that is too double to bear seed in this country, 
but what is called by florists a sporting branch or sucker." A final 
account is that given by Shailer (1852), and referred to by Darwin 
(1893). Shailer states: "The Rose Blanche Unique, or White 
Provins, was discovered by Mr. Daniel Greenwood of Little Chelsea, 
Nurseryman. He was on a journey of business in the County of 
Norfolk in the month of July 1775, when, riding very leisurely along 
the road, he perceived a rose of great whiteness in the Mill ; he alighted 
and on close inspection he discovered it to be a Provins Rose ; he 
then sought an interview with the inmate of the Mill, who was an 
elderly female ; he begged a flower, which was instantly given him ; 
in return he gave her a guinea. 
" In cutting off the flower he cut three buds ; he went to the first 
Inn, packed it up, and sent it direct to my father, at his Nursery, 
Little Chelsea, who was then his foreman, requesting him to bud it, 
which he did, and two of the buds grew : in the following autumn 
he went down to the same place, where for five guineas he brought 
the whole stock away ; he then made an arrangement with my father 
to propagate it, allowing him 5s. per plant for three years j at the 
expiration of that time he sold it out at 21s. per plant, my father's 
share amounting to upwards of £300. 
