ttle double
white rose, _Bennett's Seedling_ or _Thoresbyana_, was discovered among
some briars by Lord Manvers' gardener at Thoresby.

[Illustration: EVERGREEN.

FELICITE-PERPETUE.]

THE EVERGREEN ROSE.

The parent of the Evergreen roses of our gardens was the climbing wild
rose of Italy, _Rosa Sempervirens_. And the best known, and perhaps the
most valuable of these, is the white _Felicite et Perpetue_, named after
the saints and martyrs Felicitas and Perpetua. This rose and several
other varieties were raised in 1827 by Monsieur Jacques, the
head-gardener at the royal gardens of Neuilly. They bloom in large
clusters of small, very full, double flowers. _Myrianthes renoncule_,
_Leopoldine d'Orleans_, and _Banksiaeflora_ are white; _Princesse Marie_
and _Flora_ are pink, as is _Williams' Evergreen_. As all these keep
their dark shining foliage until nearly the end of the winter, they are
very valuable on screens and arches.

THE BANKSIAN ROSE, _R. Banksia_.

This persistent foliage is one of the great merits of the large white
Banksian _Fortunei_, called in French catalogues _Banks de Chine_--a
hybrid with the beautiful _Rosa Sinica_. Its handsome green leaves, as I
write in mid-February, are as thick outside my window in spite of twenty
degrees of frost a few weeks back, as they were in the autumn. It will
throw shoots of immense length each year: clothing a wall summer and
winter with its rich green foliage. It is much hardier than the Yellow
and White Banksians. The flowers, large, full, white, and
sweet-scented, grow singly, not in clusters, and are borne like those
of the Yellow and White Banksians on the sub-laterals--_i.e._ the little
flowering stems on the laterals of last year. This habit of growth is
the reason of so many failures in getting the Banksian roses to flower.
An old plant of the Yellow Banksian on the rectory at Strathfieldsaye
had never been known to flower when the Rev. F. Page-Roberts came there.
He, of course, discovered that it had been pruned hard in the usual way.
And after proper attention for two years, it was last year a mass of
bloom, to the surprise of all who saw it.[3]

The White Banksian was introduced by Mr. William Kerr in 1807, and named
after Lady Banks. The yellow was discovered by Dr. Abel, in 1824,
growing on the walls of Nankin. They are both natives of China: but
require a warm position on a wall in most parts of England. The finest
specimen I have ever seen wa