The Queen of the Prairies is among those best known and most desirable. Individually, its flowers are as void of beauty as a rose can be. Sometimes they are precisely like a small cabbage,—not the rose so called, but the vegetable,—and they are as deficient in fragrance as in elegance. Yet we regard this rose as a most valuable possession. It will cover a wall, a pillar, a bank, or a dead trunk, with a profusion of bloom, gorgeous as a feature of the garden landscape, though unworthy to be gathered or critically examined. It is perfectly hardy, and of the easiest culture. Those who can make no other rose grow rarely fail with this. The Baltimore Belle is a notable exception to every thing we have said in disparagement of the Prairie roses. It is evidently a hybrid of some tender, ever-blooming variety, apparently one of the Noisettes; and derives, from its paternal parent, qualities of delicacy and beauty which are not conspicuous in the maternal stock. At the same time, it has lost some of the robust and hardy character of the unmixed Prairie. In a severe New-England winter, its younger shoots are often killed back. It shows a tendency to bloom in the autumn; and a trifle more of the Noisette blood infused into it would, no doubt, make it a true autumnal rose. Some florists use it for spring forcing in the greenhouse; for which the delicacy of its clustering white flowers, shaded with a soft, flesh-color, well fits it. When the worthy Rivers, patriarch of English rose-growers, pronounced sentence, ex cathedra, against the whole race of Prairies,—"I will dismiss them with the remark, that none of them are worth cultivating,"—he included in his decree of excommunication one of the prettiest climbing roses in existence.
Anna Maria has very double flowers of pink and rose. Linnæan Hill Beauty bears white and pale blush flowers. Miss Gunnell is pale pink, with a tinge of buff. It is one of the best, though not equal to the Baltimore Belle. Mrs. Hovey has large white flowers; President, deep pink; Triumphant, deep rose; Superba, light pink. Among other sorts are the King of the Prairie, Eva Corinne, Jane, and Seraphim, all excellent for general effect, but not to be classed with the roses suitable for the bouquet or the drawing-room.
The Prairie roses might, no doubt, be greatly improved by hybridizing. Thus, by fertilization with the pollen of the Musk Rose, we should probably obtain an offspring with some of the delicacy and fragrance of that species. Again: by applying the pollen of some vigorous, hardy rose of deep and vivid color, we should improve the color of the Prairie without impairing its hardiness. Hybrid China Paul Ricaut would probably answer well for this experiment. The Baltimore Belle bears seed occasionally; but is so uncertain and capricious in this respect, that it will require no little perseverance in the hybridist.
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