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.

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