.8 
SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 
Rase, are not cf such robust and vigorous habits as when the China 
Rose is the female parent.” This looks like plain, straightforward 
information ; but it is followed by the same incertitude as some of thr 
other distinguishing features of families. Mr. "Rivers adds: “But, per 
haps, this is an opinion not borne out by facts; for the exceptions are 
numerous, and like many other variations in roses, and plants in gen¬ 
eral, seems to bid defiance to systematic* rules” Of course, they do ; 
and, with the exception of those names which bespeak a distinct char¬ 
acter, the splitting of this beautiful flower into so many different fam¬ 
ilies at all,-was a very injudicious measure. Athelin, a Rose classed in 
this group, is called also a Hybrid Bourbon, and as it blooms in clus¬ 
ters, would have been much better understood if called a Noisette. 
It comprises other roses as unlike each other as can be well imagined, 
and many of them will shoot ten feet in a season, and would be much 
more at home if classed as Climbing Roses. Belle de Rosny, among 
this family, is nevertheless called also a Hybrid Bourbon, and many 
others of this family are destined to be removed, if the senseless dis¬ 
tinctions by name are to be kept up. 
White Roses* 
Here, we have an illustration of the extreme folly of the present dis¬ 
tinctions. We are told the roses of this division may be easily dis¬ 
tinguished by their green shoots, and leaves of a glaucous green, 
looking as if they were covered with a grayish impalpable powder; 
and flowers generally of the most delicate colors, graduating from a 
pure white to a bright but delicate pink. 
The Damask Rose. 
^ .«*a is as incongruous a group as any. Blanche borde de rouge 
has flowers sometimes a pure white, at others margined with red. 
Claudine has flowers of a pale rose color. York and Lancaster, also 
classed among them, has flowers striped with red and white. Coralie 
is flesh color. Then we have Madame Hardy, which, we are fairly 
told, “is not a pure Damask Rose;” perhaps not, as it is white, and 
unlike all the rest. Then, there is the Duke of Cambridge, which Mr. 
