ROSA BRACTEATA 
Rosa involucrata of Roxburgh. The carpels are frequently as many 
as i 50-170. 
Few Roses can rival the Macartney, with its bright, glossy, ever- 
green foliage and noble ivory-white flowers, which are produced in 
abundance and continue throughout the summer. Although indigenous 
to China and northern India, it resists our winters unless they are 
exceptionally severe. In Britain it is deficient in pollen and the fruit 
rarely attains perfection. The shelter afforded by a south wall is 
sufficient protection against a severe winter, and in such a position the 
Macartney Rose will flower in the neighbourhood of London until 
Christmas, provided it is not checked by a continuous sharp frost. 
This Rose has given several varieties, some of which are still 
to be found in gardens. Others formerly in cultivation seem now 
to have disappeared, among them Victoire Modeste , Rubra duplex , 
Coccinea , Rosea , etc., which once all grew in the nursery-garden of 
Sisley Vandael, rue de Vaugirard, Paris. The nomenclature of the 
bracteata Roses now grown appears to be in some confusion. Many 
of the plants grown in England under the name of Marie Leonida 
have great difficulty in expanding their buds, though of vigorous 
constitution, imposing appearance, and very floriferous. In the Revtce 
Horticole 1 there is a note upon Rosa bracteata , pi. pi. , which the writer 
describes as a beautiful Rose raised at Milan by M. Mariani and 
resembling Marie Leonida . The reader is cautioned against con- 
founding it with the old Rosa bracteata , fl % pi , which, as it never properly 
expanded its buds, went out of cultivation. The writer goes on to say 
that the principal difference between Mariani’s new Rose and Marie 
Leonida is that in the latter the anthers turn purple, but in Mariani’s 
Rose they remain yellow. The Rose here referred to evidently 
expanded its flowers, whereas the Rose brought from England under 
the same name and grown with every care in the south of France 
and in Italy, still maintains the same peculiarity which has made it a 
failure in English gardens. The plants experimented with were bought 
from different English nurseries, some as Marie Leonida and others as 
Rosa bracteata alba , pi. pi. 
When Mariani’s Rose was figured for the Revue Horticole , it 
was growing in the garden of M. Sisley Vandael, son-in-law of the 
celebrated Dutch flower-painter Vandael. Another Rosa bracteata alba 
odorata was raised by Lenet, a Lyons rose-grower. In Max Singer’s 
Dictionnaire des Roses 2 Lenet’s Rosa bracteata is quoted under the 
date 1876. M. Jean Sisley in his copy of the Dictionnaire makes a 
marginal note, “ Je la possede depuis 1848.” 
M. Gorde of Nantes tried to discover the origin of Marie 
Leonida , but without success. It was certainly raised at Nantes, and 
was exhibited there on the 30th September, 1832. M. Ursin, President 
1 1834, p. 479. 2 Vol. i. p. 78 (1885). 
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