NOTEWORTHY PLANTS IN THE SOCIETY'S GARDEN, II. 195 
seedlings begin to flower at an early age and the plant is a decided 
acquisition among yellow-flowered climbers. 
6. Rosa Helen ae Rehder and Wilson* (fig. 50). 
Rosa Helenae is one of a group of vigorous climbing roses which 
have come to us from China and which (apart from their probable 
value in hybridizing) are suitable for planting near hedges or in semi- 
wild places where they may ramble at will. Some like R. longicuspis 
(R. lucens of some catalogues, R. Willmottiana) are not quite to be 
depended upon as hardy at Wisley, but R. Helenae has not suffered in the 
least, and has flowered profusely, giving masses of fragrant white flowers 
in July, followed by large ovoid fruits orange-red or scarlet and about 
} in. long. The rose belongs to the group Synstylae, and was included in 
his species Rosa floribunda by Rolfe. The characters by which it can 
be recognized among its allies are as follows : Shoots up to 10 to 15 feet 
in length, thick, glabrous, and purplish brown when young, armed with 
numerous spines. Leaves with 5 to 9 leaflets, acute or acuminate, 
and about to 4J in. long, sharply serrate, deep green and glabrous 
above, grey and hairy on veins beneath ; stipules entire occasionally 
with stalked glands on margins ; flowers in many-flowered corymbs, 
white, fragrant, and about 1 J to 2 in. across ; fruits as described above. 
7. Blue Primroses. 
Wisley and Blue Primroses are so closely connected that it seems 
desirable to place on record the contents of a letter relating to them 
sent by the late Max Leichtlin to Mr. P. D. Williams and dated 
January 15, 1904. Correspondence had been in progress in some of 
the garden papers concerning the blue primroses which were then 
coming to the fore, and which had apparently been raised independently 
by Mr. G. F. Wilson at Wisley, by Mr. R. Dean at Ealing, and by 
Max Leichtlin at Baden Baden. We have been able to discover no 
exact details as to the way Mr. Wilson first secured his blue strain 
which led to the selection of ' Scott Wilson,' and perhaps this note 
may induce someone who has information on the matter to send it 
to us. Leichtlin's strain is still growing at Lanarth in Mr. Williams' 
garden, and fine forms of the Wisley strain of Blue Primroses are con- 
tinually appearing in the Wisley garden. The main difference in 
the two appears to be in the smaller eye possessed by Max Leichtlin's 
strain, and his remarks are therefore particularly interesting. 
Referring to a letter he had written in the Garden, Max Leichtlin 
says, " I simply wished to state that we were workers of the same 
strain, only by a different method, and by fertilizing the old blue 
Polyanthus I came quicker to the matter ; after this trial I also took 
to the system of selection and did not try other crosses. I certainly 
never ventured to give advice to Mr. Wilson who was a cultivator 
* Rehder and Wilson in Plantae Wilsonianae 2, p. 310 (191 5). 
