|LIKE ALL things living, in the world of mind or of matter, the rose
is beautified, enlarged, and strengthened by a course of judicious and
persevering culture, continued through successive generations. The
art of horticulture is no leveller. Its triumphs are achieved by rigid
systems of selection and rejection, founded always on the broad basis of
intrinsic worth. The good cultivator propagates no plants but the best.
He carefully chooses those marked out by conspicuous merit; protects
them from the pollen of inferior sorts; intermarries them, perhaps, with
other varieties of equal vigor and beauty; saves their seed, and raises
from it another generation. From the new plants thus obtained he again
chooses the best, and repeats with them the same process. Thus the rose
and other plants are brought slowly to their perfect development. It
is in vain to look for much improvement by merely cultivating one
individual. Culture alone will not make a single rose double, or a dull
rose brilliant. We cultivate the parent, and look for our reward in the
offspring.
The village maiden has a beauty and a charm of her own; and so has
her counterpart in the floral world,--the wild rose that grows by the
roadside. Transplanted to the garden, and, with its offspring after it
to the fourth and fifth generation, made an object of skilful culture,
it reaches at last a wonderful development. The flowers which in the
ancestress were single and small become double in the offspring, and
expand their countless petals to the sun in all the majesty of the Queen
of Flowers. The village maid has risen to regal state. She has lost
her native virgin charm; but she sits throned and crowned in imperial
beauty.
Now, all the roses of our gardens have some wild ancestress of the woods
and meadows, from whom, in the process of successive generations, their
beauties have been developed, sometimes by happy accidents, but oftener
by design. Thus have arisen families of roses, each marked with traces
of its parentage. These are the patricians of the floral commonwealth,
gifted at once with fame, beauty, and rank.
The various wild roses differ greatly in their capacity of improvement
and development. In some cases, the offspring grow rapidly, in color,
fulness, and size, with every successive generation. In other cases,
they will not improve at all; and the rose remains a wild rose still,
good only for the roadside. With others yet, there seems to be a fixed
limit, which is soon reached, and where improvement stops. It requires,
even with the best, good culture and selection through several
generations before the highest result appears. In horticulture, an
element of stability is essential to progress. When the florist sees in
any rose a quality which he wishes to develop and perfect, he does not
look for success to the plant before him, but to the offspring which
he produces from this plant. 'But this production and culture must
be conducted 'wisely and skilfully, or the offspring will degenerate
instead of improving.
There are different kinds of culture, with different effects. That which
is founded in the laws of Nature, and aims at a universal development,
produces for its result not only increased beauty, but increased
symmetry, strength, and vitality. On the other hand, it is in the power
of the skilful florist to develop or to repress whatever quality he may
please. By artificial processes of culture, roses have been produced,
beautiful in form and color, but so small, that the whole plant, it
is said, might be covered with an egg-shell. These are results of the
ingenious florists of China and Japan. The culture that refines without
invigorating, belongs, it seems, to a partial or perverted civilization.
These several families of roses, resulting from the development of the
several species of wild rose, have mingled together; in other words,
they have intermarried: for Linnaeus has shown that "the loves of
the flowers" are more than a conceit of poetical fancy. From the
fertilization of the flowers of a rose of one family with the pollen
of a rose of another family arises a mixed offspring, called _hybrids_:
Seeds--which are vegetable eggs--are first produced; and these seeds
germinate, or hatch, into a brood of young plants, combining in some
degree the qualities of their parents. As this process of intermixture
may be carried on indefinitely, a vast number of new varieties has
resulted from it.
The botanical classification of the rose is a perplexity to botanists.
Its garden classification--quite another matter--is no less a source of
embarrassment to its amateur, not to say professional, cultivator. To
many, indeed, its entire nomenclature is a labyrinth of confusion;
and some have gone to the length of proposing to abolish distinctions,
which, in their eyes, seem arbitrary or fanciful. These distinctions,
however, are founded in Nature, though the superstructure built upon her
is sometimes flimsy enough to justify the impatience of its assailants.
The chief difficulty arises from the extent to which the hybridization
of the rose has been carried, and the vast entanglement of combinations
which has resulted. Out of a propensity to classify, where, in the
nature of things, precise classification is impossible, has arisen the
equivocal and shadowy character of many of the nominal distinctions.
Omitting less important divisions, the following are the groups into
which cultivated roses are ordinarily divided: The Provence,* the Moss,*
the French,* the Hybrid China, the Damask,* the Alba,* the Austrian
Brier,* the Sweet-brier,* the Scotch,* the Double Yellow,* the
Ayrshire,* the Sempervirens,* the Multiflora,* the Boursault,* the
Banksia,* the Prairie.* These bloom once in the season. The following
are perpetual or _remontant_: The China,* the Tea,* the Bourbon,
the Hybrid Perpetual, the Perpetual Moss, the Damask Perpetual,* the
Noisette, the Musk,* the Macartney,* the Microphylla.*
Some of the above are marked with a star*: these are roses of _pure
blood_. The rest are roses of mixed or hybrid origin. By the former are
meant those which have sprung, without intermixture, from the wild roses
which grew naturally in various parts of the world, and which are the
only roses of which the botanical classifier takes cognizance. Many
of them are of great beauty, and would be highly prized for ornamental
uses, were they not eclipsed by the more splendid double varieties,
which the industry of the florist has developed from them. Each of
these groups of unmixed roses, however modified in form, size, or color,
retains, as already mentioned, distinctive features of the native type
from which it sprang. Yet it often happens that the name is misapplied.
Thus a rose called Damask is not always a Damask, but a hybrid between
a Damask and some other variety. The true distinctive features of the
group are thus rendered, in some nominal members of it, so faint, that
they can scarcely be recognized. Leaving these bastards out of view, we
will consider at present only the legitimate offspring of the various
families of the rose.
On Mount Caucasus grows a single wild rose, from the seeds of which
have sprung the numerous family of the Provence or Cabbage roses, very
double, very large, and very fragrant. This race is remarkable for its
tendency to sport, from which have resulted some of the most singular
and beautiful forms of the rose. For example, a rose-colored variety of
the Provence produced a branch bearing striped flowers, and from that
branch has been propagated the Striped Provence. The Crested Moss is the
product of another of these freaks, being of the pure Provence race. The
Common Moss, and all its progeny, have the same origin; being derived,
in all probability, from a sporting branch of one of the Provence roses.
The family of the French-Rose, or Rosa Gallica, is of vast extent, and,
though including many diverse shades of color,--some pale, some bright,
others spotted, striped, or marbled,--is commonly recognized without
much difficulty by its family features. It is a native of Southern
Europe.
The wild progenitor of the Damask or Damascus roses is a native
of Syria. The name _Damask_, by the way, is popularly applied to
deep-colored roses in general; but its floral signification is very
different. In this group, for the first time, we meet with a feature,
which, desirable as it is, was not many years since regarded as rare and
exceptional. June has always been regarded as the month of the rose; but
some of the Damasks have the peculiarity of blooming twice, or more
than twice, during the season. These have been placed in a group by
themselves, and christened Damask Perpétuais. The remontant character,
however, is not confined to them; for individual plants belonging to
groups and varieties which usually bloom but once will sometimes display
an autumnal bloom. Thus the common wild rose of New England is now and
then to be seen covered with flowers in September; and there is little
doubt, that, from the seeds of these twice-blooming individuals, a new
race of hardy _remontant_ roses might be produced. It should be added,
that many of the so-called Damask Perpetuals are not pure Damask, but
crossed with the blood of other families.
Of the remaining races of pure blood, the Alba is remarkable for the
delicate coloring of its flowers; the greater part being, as the name
imports, white, or nearly so. The original variety grows wild in Central
Europe.
The Austrian Brier is another family, of features very strongly marked.
Yellow and copper are its prevailing colors; and from its habit of
growth, and the color of its twigs, it is easily recognized under all
its forms. Its original types are natives of the south of Europe, and
probably of Persia; to which country we owe its finest development,--the
well-known Persian Yellow.
The Double Yellow Rose, Rosa Sulphurea, remarkable for its beauty, and,
in our climate, notorious for its intractable and uncertain character,
is regarded by some botanists as belonging to a group distinct from the
preceding. The Single Yellow, from which it must have sprung, has been
found wild in the north of India.
The Sweet-brier, found wild in various parts of the world, is too well
known to need further notice. The American variety differs distinctly
from the European.
The Scotch roses owe their origin to the dwarf wild rose of Scotland.
The Ayrshire is a family of climbing roses, originating from the wild
trailing rose, Rosa Arven-sis, common in the British islands. The best
of them are said, however, to be hybrids between this rose' and other
species. The Boursault roses are descendants of Rosa Alpina, a native of
the Alps; and no family is more clearly marked by distinctive features.
The Sempervirens and the Multiflora are, with us at least, less
familiar. Both are climbers, like the former; the one originating from
a wild rose of Italy, the other from a wild rose of Japan. The Banksia,
with its smooth, shining leaves, and slender, green stems, is well known
in every greenhouse. Its progenitor is a native of China or Tartary,
and the improved varieties are chiefly due to the labors of Chinese
florists.
There is another race of climbers, held in great scorn by foreign
florists, but admirably adapted to our climate, under whose influences
they put forth beauties by no means contemptible. These are the progeny
of the wild Michigan or Prairie Rose, rampant growers, and generally
sturdy enough to outface our hardest winters. The best of them, however,
the Baltimore Belle, is evidently the offspring of a foreign marriage,
which, while contributing fragrance and beauty to the rugged race of
the prairies, has detracted something from its hardihood. The union,
probably accidental, seems to have been with the Tea Rose or the
Noisette.
Of the foregoing groups, all except the Damask Perpetual are
once-blooming. The following have, to a greater or less extent, the
desirable character of a continued or successive bloom.
The Macartney Rose is a wild rose of China, from which a few improved
varieties have been raised from seed. Its evergreen shining foliage is
its most attractive feature. The Microphylla, or Small-leaved Rose, is
closely akin to the Macartney, and, like the latter, is a native of the
East.
The Musk is a rose much more familiarly known. It descends from a
Persian or Syrian progenitor, and its vigorous growth, rich clusters of
bloom, and peculiar fragrance, have long made it a favorite. But by
far the most interesting and valuable among the unmixed races of
ever-blooming roses are the numberless offspring of Rosa Indica, in its
several varieties. To it we owe all the China and Tea-scented roses,
while to its foreign alliances we are indebted for a vast and increasing
host of brilliant hybrids.
Thus, from the families of pure blood, we come at length to those in
which is mingled that of two or more distinct races. Convey the pollen
of a China rose to the stigmas of a French, Damask, or Provence rose,
and from the resulting seed an offspring arises different from either
parent. Hence a new group of roses known as the Hybrid Chinas. The
parents are both of moderate growth. The offspring is usually of such
vigor as to form with readiness a pillar eight feet high. Its foliage is
distinct, its bloom often as profuse and brilliant as that of the China,
and its constitution as hardy, or nearly so, as that of the French Rose.
Unlike the former, it blooms but once in the year, or only in a few
exceptional instances shows a straggling autumnal flower. By a vicious
system of subdivision, the group has been separated into Hybrid China,
Hybrid Bourbon, and Hybrid Noisette. The two latter are the same as
the first: except, in the one case, a slight infusion of the Damask
Perpetual; and, in the latter, of the Musk Rose. In many cases, no human
discernment could detect the effects of the admixture.
Again: convey the pollen of the China or Tea Rose to the flowers of
the Musk, or _vice versa_ and for a result we obtain the Noisette,
inheriting from the former various striking characteristics of
foliage and bloom, and from the latter its vigorous climbing habit
and clustering inflorescence. But, by impregnation through several
generations, some of the Noisettes retain so little of their Musk
parent, that its traits are almost obliterated: they no longer bloom in
clusters, and can scarcely be distinguished from the pure Tea Rose.
Again: a union of a Damask Perpetual with a China rose has produced a
distinct race, of vigorous habit and peculiar foliage, possessing in
a high degree the ever-blooming character of both its parents. It is
hardier than the China Rose, though usually unable to bear a New-England
winter unprotected. This is the Bourbon Rose, a brilliant and beautiful
group, worth all the care which in this latitude its out-door culture
requires.
The Moss Rose, impregnated with various ever-blooming varieties, has
borne hybrids partially retaining the mossy stem and calyx, with a
tendency more or less manifest to bloom in the autumn. Hence the group
of the Perpetual Moss, a few only of whose members deserve the name.
It is evident, that, by continuing the process of hybridizing, hybrids
may be mixed with hybrids, till the blood of half a score of the
original races is mingled in one plant. This, in some cases, is, without
doubt, actually the case; and this bastard progeny must, of necessity,
be classified rather by its visible characteristics than by its
parentage. Thus a host of ever-blooming hybrids, which are neither
Noisette nor Bourbon nor Perpetual Moss, have been cast into one grand
group, under the comprehensive title of Hybrid Perpetuals. Whence have
they sprung? What has been their parentage? The question is easier asked
than answered: for as, in a great nation of the West, one may discern
the lineaments and hear the accents of diverse commingled races; so
here we may trace the features of many and various families of Indian
or Siberian, Chinese or European, extraction. The Hybrid Perpetuals,
however, inherit their _remontant_ character chiefly from Rosa
Indica,--the China or Tea Rose,--and, in a far less degree, from the
Damask Perpetual. An infusion of the former exists, in greater or less
degree, in all of them; while the blood of the Damask Perpetual shows
its traces in comparatively few. Many of the group are the results of
a union between the Hybrid China roses and some variety of the China or
Tea. Others owe their origin to the Hybrid China and the Bourbon, both
parents being hybrids of Rosa Indica. Others are offspring of the
Hybrid China crossed with the Damask Perpetual; while many spring from
intermarriages within the group itself,--Hybrid Perpetual with Hybrid
Perpetual.
By some over-zealous classifiers, this group has been cut up into
various subdivisions, as Bourbon Perpetual, Rose de Rosomène, and the
like; a procedure never sufficiently to be deprecated, as tending to
produce no results but perplexity and confusion. Where there, can be no
definite basis of division, it is well to divide as little as may be;
and it is to be hoped that secession from the heterogeneous commonwealth
of the Hybrid Perpetuals will be effectually repressed. In regard to
roses in general, while a classification founded on evident natural
affinities is certainly desirable, yet, in the name of common sense,
let us avoid the multiplication of new hybrid groups, founded on flimsy
distinctions, and christened with new names, which begin with meaning
little, and end with meaning nothing.
In our enumeration of the families and varieties of the rose, we shall
make two great divisions,--that of the "Summer," or once-blooming,
and that of the "Autumnal," or "ever-blooming" roses. In each of these
divisions, we shall place first the roses of unmixed race, and, after
them, the hybrids which have sprung from their combinations.
[Illustration: 0119]
[Illustration: 0120]