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THE CLASSIFICATION OF ROSES. 
■which go off but a short time; make a fresh 
season of bloom, and so on. Not like the China- 
roses, always " growing and blowing," but 
fairly making different seasons of bloom, as 
complete as if a winter intervened. Now, there 
could be no mistaking this character. The 
members of this family are numerous, and if 
two-thirds were banished the English gardens, 
so much the better. 
THE BOURBON ROSE. 
The original Bourbon-rose was a hybrid 
between the common China and the red four- 
seasons. Of course this was quite enough 
reason for Rose-growers to add to the family 
all that were something like it, and others 
that were nothing like it. Here let Mr. Rivers 
speak : " Diaphane is a small high-coloured 
Rose, almost scarlet. This is not a true Bour- 
bon." The fact is, there is nothing like the 
Bourbon -rose about it. Here we have also 
Gloire de Rosamene, unlike the Bourbon-rose 
in everything. It is a robust Climbing-rose, 
which even Mr. Rivers himself says, " as a 
Pillar-rose it will form a splendid object." 
The white Bourbon, which the French culti- 
vators are at war about, " some swearing," as 
Mr. Rivers tells us, " by all their saints that it 
is a veritable Bourbon, while others as strongly 
maintain that it is a Noisette ;" and from its 
clustered flowers the latter are nearest right. 
But all this arises from the multiplication of 
families. 
THE CHINA ROSE. 
Everybody knows the pale China and the 
dark China-roses, which may be seen deco- 
rating the cottages of our industrious classes 
as well as the gardens of the rich. They were, 
however, Bengal-roses, and not natives of 
China. Now the distinguishing characteristic 
of the Bengal, or, as now called, China-rose, is 
smooth bark, with the thorns distant from each 
other ; shining leaves, and constant growing 
and blooming. These features could be well 
understood by everybody ; but every thing 
that can be at all traced to have any one of 
these features, and cannot easily be placed in 
other families, must come to this; and so we 
have plenty, and a most beautiful family it is. 
THE TEA-SCENTED CHINA ROSE 
is afi acknowledged variation of the Bengal, 
or, as the Rose-dealers will have it, China- 
rose; but it is a true China, imported from 
that empire in 1810. It is said to have been 
the parent of this large family; but here we 
have the same difficulty that presents itself in 
other families — there is no place to draw the 
line : they are China-roses, and only China- 
roses, but they are stronger scented than the 
Bengal, called common China, and it is difficult 
to detect the difference between the highest 
perfumed of the former class and the lowest 
perfumed of the Tea-China, as now classed. 
THE MINIATURE ROSE. 
This family is also said to be China, possess- 
ing all the marked features ; but it is smaller 
than the others, and is acknowledged by Mr. 
Rivers to be only a dwarf variety of the com- 
mon China, or, as we insist, Bengal. It is 
worthy of remark, that all those so called China- 
roses have the characteristics we have men- 
tioned — the constant growing and blooming if 
kept in order under proper protection; and 
are not deciduous. 
THE NOISETTE ROSE. 
The distinguishing character of this Rose is 
that it flowers in bunches, and this ought to 
be the character of every one added to the 
family. But here we have Lamarque, which is 
anything but a Noisette; it does not flower in 
bunches, unless every Rose which has two or 
three flowers on a stem is to be called Noi- 
sette ; and Smith's yellow Noisette is about 
as much entitled to the name as Lamarque. 
But they are not alone ; too many which 
have no claim on the family have nevertheless 
been forced on them. 
THE MUSK ROSE. 
This is an old favourite, and many which have 
been supposed to come from its seed are 
fastened on it as a family, and many not 
very like the parent, The family, like some 
of the others, is delightfully confused, and 
there is nothing so distinct as to connect it as 
a separate class. 
THE MACARTNEY ROSE. 
The characteristic of this Rose is its very 
bright thick evergreen foliage, and therefore 
any other hybrid Roses which have that cha- 
racteristic, might, according to other classifi- 
cations, be put among these. Maria Leonida 
is perhaps the best of them; Rosa berberifolia 
Hardii,f.of whose origin Mr. Rivers makes a 
sad muddle, is classed with this family. Mr. 
Rivers's story is, that "Rosa Hardii was 
lately raised from seed by Mons. Hardy of 
the Luxemburg Gardens from Rosa involucre, 
a variety of Rosa bracteata, fertilized with 
that unique rose Rosa berberifolia, or the 
single yellow Persian Rose." The fact is, 
that the seed of Rosa berberifolia was very 
frequently exported from Persia, and comes 
always true to the parent ; some of the Per- 
sian seed was sent to Mons. Hardy, and from 
that, he, like others, raised the true Rosa ber- 
berifolia, which Mr. Lee of the Hammersmith 
Nursery raised from Persian seed likewise, 
more than twenty years before Mr. Hardy 
was a Rose raiser at all. Well may Mr. Rivers 
