124 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
other parts of Europe. It has long been under cultivation, and is prolific 
in the production of seed, which fact no doubt accounts for the number 
of French Roses introduced into our gardens. The date when it was 
first brought into England is uncertain. It is strongly perfumed, and 
it is one of the Roses to which its numerous descendants owe their 
scent. R. gallica resembles in some respects R. centifolia, the Provence 
Rose or, as we call it, the Cabbage Rose. The name " hundred-leaved " 
indicates that it is many-petalled. It came to us from the South of 
France, and since it was found in the old French province of Provence 
it is called the Provence Rose. It is also found in the wild state with 
single flowers in the eastern parts of the Caucasus. 
The late Canon Jeans contributed to the Rose Annual of 1921 a 
most interesting article on the history of this Rose which he says 
" seems chiefly to have formed the backbone of continuity." He 
identifies it with the Roses mentioned by Herodotus in the garden of 
Midas. "Here Roses grow," says the historian, "so sweet that no 
others can vie with them, and their blossoms have as many as sixty 
petals apiece." He suggests that from Paestum, the Greek part of 
Italy, famous in ancient days for its Roses, this noblest of all Roses 
spread through southern Italy and was introduced by the Romans into 
Gaul, where it became known as the Rosa provincialis or Provence 
Rose. However that may be, it came to us in 1596, and for long held 
a first position in English gardens. The Provence Roses are deliciously 
fragrant. 
Rosa damascena, the Damask Rose, is generally believed to have been 
introduced into Europe from Syria, possibly at the time of the Crusades. 
It was brought to England in 1573. It is not known to exist in an 
uncultivated state. Without question it is of great antiquity. One 
authority considers R. damascena to be merely a variety of R. gallica, 
which was distributed from France to Mesopotamia. Formerly all 
red Roses were termed Damask. This accounts for the fact that the 
common red Gallica is often described as Red Damask, which of 
course is misleading. There are dark Roses belonging to every group, 
and there are Damask Roses of various colours, even white. I wish 
especially to draw attention to the Damask Rose because it was for 
long years a great favourite in English gardens, and through it, as I 
will show later, was produced first Damask Perpetual and then the 
Hybrid Perpetual. Some authorities assert that R. centifolia and R. 
damascena are merely subdivisions of R. gallica. It should be noted 
that all three— gallica, centifolia, and damascena — were summer-flowering 
only, and these were the Roses which, with the Austrian Briers and a 
few species, until the nineteenth century graced the gardens of our 
forefathers. R. centifolia and R. damascena give us the true Rose 
scent. 
The coming of the China Rose (Rosa indica) towards the close of the 
eighteenth century, with its faculty of continued or successional 
flowering, wrought a revolution. As the result of fertilization of 
R. gallica and Provence Roses with R. indica, or possibly vice versa, 
