ROSA BANKSIAE 
in quality of physician and naturalist. He was amply equipped for 
scientific research, and but for the fact that the ship containing his 
collections was wrecked on the homeward voyage the mission would 
have been an exceedingly fruitful one. 
No naturalist accompanied Lord Macartney’s expedition, but 
Sir George Staunton collected specimens, and in his account of the 
Embassy gives lists of the plants found. 1 
Unfortunately the Banksian Rose does not flower freely m the 
neighbourhood of London, but on the Riviera, in south-eastern France, 
Italy, California and Chili, it may be seen in full perfection. It is 
cultivated extensively in France from the south as far north as Paris, 
and is everywhere the most vigorous of all Roses. On the Riviera this 
great vigour is turned to account for grafting certain varieties, to which 
it imparts its luxuriant growth. At Lyons it is sometimes cut to the 
ground by severe frost, but in Savoy it has never been known to suffer 
even during the hardest winters. It is one of the earliest Roses to 
blossom, but sunshine is absolutely necessary to bring it to the flowering 
state. 
Lindley, writing in the Botanical Register in 1827, said that the 
Banksian Rose had never been seen in a fruiting state by any European 
botanist. It is true that it does not seed Ireely, but yet it does often 
bear seed. F rom seed collected by M. Michelange Console at Palermo 
in 1888 from a double white-flowered plant, M. Viviand Morel raised 
several seedlings in his garden at Villeurbanne. The first to blossom 
produced yellow flowers. He also raised plants from seeds of the 
Yellow Banksian, but amongst all his plants none showed the least 
variation, the two types, the yellow and the white double-flowered, 
remaining constant. 
All the Banksian Roses strike freely from cuttings made under a 
bell-glass, a few leaves being allowed to remain. Like nearly all others, 
they flower on the preceding year’s growth. There are but very few 
Roses, such as Rosa chinensis J acq. , the Bourbon Rose , some dwarf tea- 
roses, etc., which flower on the year’s growth. If the Banksian be 
pruned too hard on the preceding year’s growth, it will not flower. 
Generally speaking, the vigorous-growing Roses are left too much to 
themselves. Dead and crowded wood should be cut away, and only 
those branches left which are growing in the direction required. 
These should be pruned after flowering; they will then develop several 
strong growths, which should be shortened to about three feet ; these 
again will send forth fresh shoots, but shorter and weaker as the season 
advances and the sap is less active. Treated in this way, they will flower 
well unless an exceptionally severe season has injured the young buds. 
1 An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China (1798). 
