Typical scene in the modern rose garden in which everblooming Teas, Hybrid Teas Characteristic method of using the modern Rambler Hybrids for decorative purposes, 
and Hybrid Perpeluals are grown for specimen blooms in this instance draping over a stone wall 
THE STORY OF THE MODERN ROSE’ 
By Ernest H. Wilson, Arboretum 
[Editor’s Note. — This is the first of a series of articles of unusual importance that will appear month by month in The Garden 
Magazine and each one having a timely interest. Mr. Wilson writes both as a botanist and a practical horticulturist — a rare com- 
bination, indeed. More than any other man living, he is justified, as the result of his travels and collections in China and Japan, 
together with his work in the gardens and nurseries of Europe and America, to speak authoritatively on the subject which he touches. 
In this series of articles, he will present many new and perhaps surprising conclusions, besides helping to unravel some of the mysteries 
or confusions that have hitherto surrounded the stories of some of our favorite plants. Mr. Wilson goes to the fountain head for his facts, 
and every statement made in this and the future articles is based on an actual verification of references, dates, etc., and an acquain- 
tance with the living plants themselves, both in their native regions and in our gardens.} 
T HE establishing of a trading 
factory at Canton, in southern 
China, by the English East- 
India Company toward the close 
of the seventeenth century, would appear 
to have very little if, indeed, anything to do 
with the development of modern horticul- 
ture in general and the Rose in particular. 
But as a matter of fact it has had a great 
deal to do with both, and garden lovers gen- 
erally (though they may not know it), owe 
a big debt to the directors and officers of 
that grand old Company. The Company 
met with great opposition from the Chinese 
and others and it was a century before it 
fully established itself in China. Never- 
theless, in the earliest days of its career 
there an officer of the Company sent to 
England some dried plants, among them 
two Roses, known now-a-days botanically 
as Rosa mulliflora and R. laevigata, which 
are mentioned by Plukenet in his Almages- 
tum in 1696. Toward the end of the 
eighteenth century in spite of the Na- 
poleonic wars and the fact that each vessel 
was armed and often had to do battle 
against foes, the captains of the East- 
Indiamen, as the Company’s ships were 
called, used to carry home plants which 
they, or the factory officials at Canton, 
found growing in the gardens of the Chinese. 
These plants found their way into the 
gardens of the Company’s directors and 
their friends and from hence into the Royal 
Gardens, Kew, and elsewhere. To these 
agencies we owe our earliest varieties of 
Chrysanthemums, Camellias, Moutan 
Peonies, Chinese Primrose, Chinese Azaleas, 
and, what here concerns us chiefly, the first 
plants of the Chinese Monthly, Tea and 
Rambler Roses — parents of the modern Rose. 
Early in the eighteenth century India 
received through the same source many 
plants including these and other Roses. It 
is important to remember this since one of 
these, the Chinese Monthly Rose ( Rosa 
chinensis), was afterward erroneously con- 
sidered to be native of India and became 
generally known as the “Bengal Rose.” 
This Rose and its var. semperflorens were 
introduced by the French to the Isle of 
Bourbon, doubtless from India, during the 
eighteenth century. 
The Bengal Rose was known to Gronovius 
in 1704, and came into cultivation in 
Haarlem in 1781, having probably been 
introduced by Dutch East-Indiamen. But, 
preoccupied wi(h their tulips and other 
bulbous plants the Dutch have done little 
toward developing the modern Rose. In 
1789, Sir Joseph Banks introduced it to 
England and, chronologically, our story 
here begins. 
In 1789, Rosa chinensis var. semper- 
florens (Crimson Chinese Monthly), through 
the captain of an English East-Indiaman, 
came into the possession of Gilbert Slater, 
Esq. In 1804, Thomas Evans sent from 
China to England through the same agency 
the first Rambler Rose ( Rosa mulliflora 
var. earned). In 1809, Sir Abraham Hume, 
received from China, through a similar 
agency, the first Tea-scented Rose which 
had double pink flowers and was christened 
Rosa chinensis var. odoratissima. And, 
to complete the independent activities of 
the British East-India Company, between 
1815 and 1817, Charles Francis Greville, 
2.53 
Esq., received from China a Rambler Rose 
{Rosa multiflora var. platyphylla) which 
enjoyed lasting popularity under the name 
of “Seven Sisters” and by which name it 
will be remembered by many readers of 
this Magazine. * 
Meanwhile, in 1792, Lord Macartney 
brought back with him from China a Rose 
{R. bracteata) which was styled the Ma- 
cartney Rose and which is now naturalized 
in some of our warmer states. 
Another Chinese Rose — the Cherokee 
Rose — the date of whose introduction to 
this country is unknown, is also naturalized 
widely in the warmer states and received 
its earliest name {R. laevigata) in 1803, from 
Michaux who firmly believed it to be native 
of this country. 
In 1796, Rosa rugosa, native of Japan, 
Korea and extreme northeastern Asia, was 
introduced to England by Messrs. Lee and 
Kennedy. 
These new and amazing plants from 
China quickly attracted the attention of 
patrons of horticulture in England and men 
were despatched to China expressly to send 
home all the novelties they could find; 
and, intermittently, from the commence- 
ment of the nineteenth century down to the 
present day ardent collectors have been 
busily employed, but this wonderfully rich 
country is not yet exhausted of its floral 
treasures! One of the first of these col- 
lectors — William Kerr — sent home in 1807, 
the double white-flowered Banksian Rose 
{Rosa Banksiae). In 1824, John Damper 
Parks sent home the double yellow-flowered 
Banksian Rose {R. Banksiae var. lutea) and 
a semi-double yellowish Tea Rose {R. 
^Copyright 1915, by Doubleday. Page & Co. 
