rose was originated in France in 1819, no doubt it was a cross on the English rose, the Portland, of 1800, known by Redouté.
     In his "Manuel Complet de l'Amateur de Roses," 1836, M. Boitard has the following. Under a general heading of Centifolia, he classes the Damascena, the Frankfort, the Belgique, etc., and from the Belgique he gets the Portland which differs from the Belgique (Damask) in certain features. He describes these: "Leurs rameaux, ordinairement très aiguillonnés, sont cependant presque inermes dans quelques variétés; leurs pédoncules sont plus courts et les feurs forment des corymbes fastigiés plus courts que les feuilles environnantes; le tube du calice a une base amincie, s'unissant insensiblement au sommet épaissi du pédoncule; les sépales égalent ou dépassent la longueur des pétales. Tous caractères qui ne se rencontrent pas dans les roses belgiques de race pure."
     Under this group are three, those which bloom more than twice, etc., and under this subgroup are three roses, Rose du Roi (Rose Leleiur), "rouge clair"; Perpetuelle, also "rouge;" and Philippe Premier, "d'un beau violet foncé."
     The Jamain and Forney rose and the Boitard rose, described above are the only purples under the Portlandica roses of those authors.
     Boitard says elsewhere that Rose du Roi sometimes has six sepals on the calyx.
     Rivers says, "It is asserted that Rose du Roi was raised from R. portlandica, a semi-double, bright-colored rose much like the rose known in this country as the Scarlet Four Seasons or R. poestana." Parkman says Mogador is a seedling from Rose du Roi and is, perhaps, an improvement. Parsons calls the Rose du Roi à, Fleurs Pourpres, Mogador. Rivers says that Rose du Roi à Fleurs Pourpres is the correct name for those with purple shadings and that Mogador, a name given by the French in memory of a battle with the Moors, is incorrect.
     We believe that our rose is Rose du Roi à Fleurs Pourpres, a brilliant, fragrant, handsome rose growing on a strong, enduring bush, a rose which is probably the ancestor of some of the dark Hybrid Perpetuals. To come to this has been a bewildering study, during which it has been difficult to keep our footing after the time of the Portlandica development in 1800. Some

time, the purple and the greater fulness were bred in, before 1819. No one says a word about reflexing or non-reflexing of the sepals. Is it a Gallica hang-over?
     Consolation for being unable to settle such a detail may be gained from a note from Lindley. He says, in the introduction to his "Rosarum Monographia, 1830": "Pubescence on branches; peduncles, and tube of the calyx, is the only invariable character I have discovered in roses."