THE AYRSHIRE ROSES 
in the Botanical Magazine in 1819 1 that Sir Joseph Banks hacl made 
the strictest inquiries and had been unable to discover that the Rose 
had ever been heard of either there or in any part of Scotland. The 
figure is stated to have been made from a plant growing in Sir Joseph’s 
garden at Spring Grove, but nothing is said as to the origin of this 
plant. N ow the Rose figured is Rosa arvensis with leaflets dark green 
above, paler and slightly glaucous below, stipules narrow, flat, edged 
with glands and having a red band down the middle. It is difficult to 
realise how this oversight could have arisen, for the true Ayrshire 
Rose was certainly growing at Spring Grove at that time, the plants 
having come from Ronald’s Nursery at Brentford in 18 11. 
And now, having gathered together all the early references to the 
Ayrshire Rose which it has been possible to find, we will quote Mr. 
Neill’s own account of its introduction into Scotland, as given in the 
Edinburgh Philosophical Journal referred to above: 
“At the time when the Botanical Garden at Leith Walk, Edinburgh, was 
originally established (about 1767), the late Dr. John Hope, Professor of Botany, 
and some well-wishers to the garden and to botanical science, united in sending 
out a person to North America, with the view of his collecting the seeds of new, 
curious or useful plants. Of the transatlantic rarities sent home by this collector, 
no register seems to have been made ; and both he and his patrons have thus in a 
great measure lost the credit that was due to them for their zeal. The late John, 
Earl of Loudoun, was a subscriber towards this botanical speculation ; and in return, 
he received, in 1768 or 1769, a share of a parcel of seeds sent either from Lower 
Canada or Nova Scotia. Among these were some briar heps ; which being sown 
in the garden at Loudon Castle, produced a number of rose-bushes. These, in a 
year or two, attracted much notice by the great length to which they pushed their 
shoots. The present Mr. George Douglas of Rodinghead (factor upon the Duke 
of Portland’s estate in Ayrshire) resided at Loudon Castle at that period ; and he 
perfectly recollects the sowing of the American heps, and the wide rambling rose- 
plants which sprung from them. Several of the neighbouring proprietors in 
Ayrshire got plants of the new rose for their gardens. Among others, the late Mr. 
Dalrymple of Orangefield received a plant from Mr. Douglas ; and he having 
trained it against the garden-wall, ‘ it ran amazingly ’ (as Mr. Underwood expresses 
it), the rapidity of its growth, and length of the shoots, surprising everybody. 
The nurserymen of Kilmarnock and Ayr having procured cuttings and layers from 
this plant, bestowed on it the name of the O vangefi eld Rose ; in places at a distance, 
however, it soon came to be known by the more general title of the Ayrshire Rose. 
The original Orangefield specimen was in existence little more than twenty years 
ago ; but the garden having, about that time, come into the possession of a tenant, 
who preferred currant bushes to rampant roses, it was grubbed up and destroyed. 
Several of the original plants, however, still remain at Loudon Castle, some trained 
against the walls of the factor’s house, and others in old hedges on the farm of 
Alton, near Loudon. Mr. Douglas has likewise some of the original plants growing 
in hedges and against walls, on his own property of Rodinghead.” 
Shortly after the publication of this account, Mr. Sabine read 
before the Horticultural Society a paper in which he discussed at 
length the history of the Ayrshire Rose. In this paper he examines 
1 Vol. xlvi. t. 2054. 
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