Scots Briar.
STANWELL PERPETUAL.
The Scotch Briar, R. spinossima,
is a most fragrant little rose, its compact bushes forming an excellent hedge round a rose garden, covered so closely with the sweet little double, globular flowers that the tiny leaves are almost hidden by the mass of blossom. They can be had in yellow, white, or many shades of pink. But none are prettier than the common rose-pink. The yellow is a hybrid—raised in France early in the nineteenth century.
The [Stanwell Perpetual] is a Scotch briar, hybridized most probably with the Damask Perpetual or some such rose, flesh-coloured and flowering from May till the autumn.
Rosa Rugosa, the Ramanas Rose of Japan,
was introduced into England in 1784. But this fact may, I imagine, be as great a surprise to some of my readers as it was to myself, when I discovered the statement on unimpeachable authority an hour ago. I well remember the first plants of the common pinkish-red variety, which I first saw in 1876. It was then considered something of a novelty; and I recollect how we all began cultivating it in our gardens, and that we were enraptured, as were the blackbirds and thrushes, by its large, handsome bright scarlet fruit in the autumn.
The varieties in cultivation in those days were alba the single white, introduced in 1784 by Thunberg, a very lovely flower; and rubra, the single pinkish-red (Cels. 1802). The hybridists began work upon these some twenty years ago. Paul and Son brought out America in 1895; and the fine Atropurpurea in 1900, one of the very best singles, deep glowing crimson with brilliant golden stamens when opening at sunrise, and turning purple later in the day. Double hybrids were also raised, the charming white Mme. Georges Bruant, 1888; Blanc double de Coubert, 1892; Belle Poitevin, 1895, rose-coloured and very fragrant; and the handsome Rose à parfum de l'Hay, 1904, carmine cerise and deliciously scented. Fimbriata, 1891, semi-double, white tinted blush, the edge of the petals fringed like a dianthus, is perhaps the prettiest of all, and is specially suited for growing as an isolated bush.
Rugosa.
CONRAD FERDINAND MEYER.