years since I raised a plentiful crop of seedlings from this rose, fertilised with the Tuscany: nearly all my plants produced semi-double blush and rose-coloured flowers.

It will, I feel assured, repay the amateur if he will plant Comte Plater, or Emerance, against a south wall, and fertilise their flowers with the pollen off Rosa Harrisonii, or the Persian Yellow : if seed can be procured, some novel yellow roses must be originated.

THE HYBRID CHINA ROSE.

(ROSA INDICA HYBRIDA.)

Rosier Hybride de Bengale.

The superior varieties of this fine division give a combination of all that is or can be beautiful in roses; for, not only are their flowers of the most elegant forms and colours, their foliage of extreme luxuriance, but their branches are so vigorous and graceful, that perhaps no plant presents such a mass of beauty as a finely grown hybrid China rose in full bloom. They owe their origin to the China, Tea-scented Noisette, and Bourbon roses, fertilised with the French, Provence, and other summer roses, and also to the latter crossed with

the former; the seeds of such impregnated flowers producing hybrid China roses. These have in

many cases resulted from accident, but latterly from the regular fertilising process, as mules or hybrids have been raised from well-known parents.

In England, but few varieties have been originated; as the common China rose does not in general ripen its seeds sufficiently for germination. The parents of Brown's Superb Blush, an old English hybrid, raised by the late Mr. Charles Brown, of Slough, one of our most scientific and persevering cultivators, was the old Tea-scented rose, Rosa indica odorata, impregnated with some hardy summer rose. Rivers's George the Fourth is also an English rose; but as this came by accident, its origin is not so well ascertained. Rosa Blairii, two varieties, Numbers 1. and 2., are also English, and raised from the yellow China, impregnated with some variety of hardy rose. All these roses have the true characters of the family: leaves smooth, glossy, and sub-evergreen: branches long, luxuriant, and flexible. They give a long continuance of bloom, but they never put forth secondary or autumnal flowers. This is a most peculiarly distinguishing trait, and an interesting fact. Impregnate a Bourbon, China, or Noisette rose, all abundant autumnal bloomers, with the farina of a French or Provence rose, and you entirely take away the tendency to autumnal blooming in their offspring. They will grow vigorously

all the autumn, and give a long, but not a secondary series of flowers. Some of these hybrid China roses produce seed abundantly, which is rather a remarkable feature, as so few hybrid plants are fertile.

Hybrids produced from the French rose impregnated with the China rose are not of such robust and vigorous habits as when the China rose is the female parent; but, perhaps, this is an assertion scarcely borne out by facts, for the exceptions are numerous, and, like many other variations in roses and plants in general, seem to bid defiance to systematic rules. By some cultivators the roses of this division have been much more divided than in my catalogue, forming "Hybrid Noisettes," "Hybrid Bourbons," &c. &c.; but as these all owe their origin to the common China rose, their offspring may with justice be called Hybrid China roses. I have, however, found the Hybrid Bourbon roses distinct in their characters, and they now form a group, or division, in the catalogue.

Those that have been raised from Noisette roses have a tendency to produce their flowers in clusters; those from Bourbon roses have their leaves thick, leathery, and round, forming a most distinct group; those from the Tea-scented have a delicate and grateful scent; but all have those distinguishing family traits as before given, and accordingly they group beautifully. It is a difficult

task to point out the best in this division, as they are nearly all well deserving of cultivation. However, by making a few remarks, such as cannot be given in a descriptive catalogue, I may perhaps be able, in some measure, to direct the choice of amateurs to those most worthy their notice.

*

Brennus, the Brutus of some collections: this very superb rose will form a finer object as a pillar rose or standard than as a bush; its luxuriant shoots must not be shortened too much in winter pruning, as it is then apt to produce an abundance of wood, and but very few flowers. This rose often puts forth branches in one season from eight to ten feet in length: if these are from a dwarf, and are fastened to a wooden or iron stake, and not shortened, the following season they will form a pillar of beauty but rarely equalled. Blairii, No. 2., a rose not so much known as it deserves to be, is a very distinct and unique variety, so impatient of the knife, that if pruned at all severely, it will scarcely put forth a flower: it is perhaps better as a pillar rose, than grown in any other mode, as it shoots ten or twelve feet in one season, and its pendulous clusters of flowers which are produced from these long shoots unshortened, have a beautiful effect on a pillar.

All the roses to which this term is applied make very long and flexible shoots, well adapted for training up a column, thus forming a pillar of roses.

The Duke of Devonshire is an imbricated rose, was one of the great favourites of the day, and most deservedly so, for its rosy lilac petals are so delicately striped with white, and its shape is so perfect, that it will always be admired.

Rivers's George the Fourth is still, perhaps, one of the best of this family: it was raised from seed by myself more than thirty years ago, and contributed probably more than any thing to make me an enthusiastic rose cultivator.* Lady Stuart, like the Duke of Devonshire, is a gem of the first water, for no rose can surpass it in beauty; the form of the flowers before expansion is perfectly spherical, and exceedingly beautiful.

Riego is between the China rose and the sweetbriar; a remarkable, but most pleasing union, as it has the most delicious perfume.

I hope to be pardoned the digression, but even now I have not forgotten the pleasure the discovery of this rose gave me. One morning in June I was looking over the first bed of roses I had ever raised from seed, and searching for something new among them with all the ardour of youth, when my attention was attracted to a rose in the centre of the bed, not in bloom but growing with great vigour, its shoots offering a remarkable contrast to the plants by which it was surrounded, in their crimson purple tinge; upon this plant I set my mark, and the following autumn removed it to a pet situation. It did not bloom in perfection the season after removal, but, when established, it completely eclipsed all the dark roses known, and the plant was so vigorous that it made shoots more than ten feet in length in one season. This plant is still living (1854), and nearly as vigorous

as ever.

D