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Rosa Spinosissima.—The original Scotch Rose is a wild dwarf rose, common in Scotland and the north of England. As it bears seed in great abundance, as these seeds vegetate freely, and as the Scotch gardeners have taken pride in multiplying and improving this native growth of the soil, the number of varieties is nominally immense. Many of them, however, are scarcely to be distinguished the one from the other. The flowers are small, and exceedingly numerous. They bloom earlier than most roses, and show various shades of crimson, rose, white, and yellow,—or rather straw-color; for the yellow Scotch Rose is apparently a hybrid. They are useful for covering banks and forming clumps where masses of bloom are required. Nothing can exceed their hardiness, and they increase abundantly by suckers. A list of named varieties of the Scotch Rose would, from their multiplicity, and want of distinctness, be even more unsatisfactory than the florist's lists of pansies or verbenas. The following, however, are good:—
La Neige is pure white, and very double. Guy Mannering is of a deep blush. Sulphurea, Lady Balllie, and the Marchioness of Lansdowne, are of a pale straw or sulphur color. The Yellow Scotch is of a deeper yellow tint. Flora, Daphne, Erebus, Venus, and the Countess of Glasgow, are of deep shades of rose and crimson.
"Scotch roses, when grown into beds and clumps as dwarfs, are beautiful; and in early seasons they will bloom nearly a fortnight before the other summer roses make their appearance. This, of course, makes them desirable appendages to the flower-garden. They bear seed profusely; and raising new varieties from seed will be found a most interesting employment. To do this, all that is required is to sow the seed as soon as ripe, in October, in pots or beds of fine earth, covering it with nearly an inch of mould: the succeeding spring they will come up, and bloom in perfection the season following.
"The aim should be to obtain varieties with large and very double crimson flowers: this can only be done by slightly hybridizing; and to effect this it will be necessary to have a plant or two of the Tuscany Rose trained to a south wall, so that their flowers are expanded at the same time as the Scotch roses in the open borders: unless thus forced, they will be too late. Any dark-red varieties of the Scotch roses, such as Venus, Erebus, or Flora, should be planted separately from others, and their flowers fertilized with the above French Rose. Some very original deep-colored varieties will probably be obtained by this method. Sulphurea and one or two other straw-colored varieties may be planted with the Double Yellow Austrian Brier; and most likely some pretty sulphur-colored roses will be the result of this combination."—Rivers.
Rosa Lutea.—This is a small family of roses, very distinct in all its characteristics; a native of Southern Europe and of some parts of the East. It is seldom that any seedlings have been obtained from it, as its flowers, even in the single varieties, are usually barren. They may, however, be made productive by fertilizing them with the pollen of other varieties. Its stems are spiny, and of a reddish or brownish color. Its leaves are small, and its growth somewhat straggling. The colors of its flowers are copper and yellow in various shades. It should not be pruned too closely; but the shoots may with great advantage be pinched back in midsummer, thus causing them to throw out a great number of lateral shoots, and correcting the loose and straggling habit of the bush. The bloom, with this treatment, is very profuse.
The best known roses of this family are five in number. The Single Austrian Yellow and the Single Austrian Copper may be regarded as the original types of the species. William's Double Yellow is an English seedling of a pale-yellow color. Harrison's Yellow is an excellent yellow rose, originated in America. It is very vigorous in growth, and, on the whole, the best yellow rose for general cultivation. The Persian Yellow, however, is of a much deeper hue, and is unrivalled in its way. It is one of those roses which are feeble on their own roots, but grow very vigorously either on the Dog Rose or on the Manetti stock. It is said to have originated, as its name imports, from Persia.
A moist soil, and a dry, pure air, are essential to the growth of all this family of roses.
"No family of roses offers such an interesting field for experiments in raising new varieties from seed as this. First we have the Copper Austrian, from which, although it is one of the oldest roses in our gardens, a double flowering variety has never yet been obtained. This rose is always defective in pollen; and consequently it will not bear seed unless its flowers are fertilized. As it will be interesting to retain the traits of the species, it should be planted with and fertilized by the Double Yellow: it will then, in warm, dry seasons, produce seed, not abundantly; but the amateur must rest satisfied if he can procure even one hip-full of perfect seed.
"The beautiful and brilliant Rosa Harrison, however, gives the brightest hopes. This should be planted with the Double Yellow Brier: it will then bear seed abundantly. No rose will, perhaps, show the effects of fertilizing its flowers more plainly than this; and consequently, to the amateur, it is the pleasing triumph of Art over Nature. Every flower on my experimental plants, not fertilized, proved abortive; while, on the contrary, all those that were so, produced large black spherical hips-full of perfect seed. The Persian Yellow does not seem inclined to bear seed; but it may be crossed with Rosa Harrison, and, I trust, with some good effect."—Rivers.