The true Noisette may be a four- to five-foot bush or an arching Climber. Aimée Vibert has both habits. The Musk ancestor shows through in the long, acute leaflets, the occasional single infrastipular prickle, smooth wood with scattered strong prickles, and the pistil form of the flower; not quite the clublike column but a set of coherent pistils, projecting like a little brush. Often the Musk perfume is there, for our delight. If you think you have one of these old true Noisettes,--pink, white, rose, even deeper in color,--run your finger along the center nerve of the end leaflets. If you find a prickle, or more than one, extending beyond the petiole, onto the leaflet, the chances are with you that you have one of the clustering Noisettes.
     Most of the above features occur in the Pemberton hybrids of the Musk rose, made about fifty years ago. In these the blooms (in my experience) are larger and the clusters less in number. They are pillar roses rather than Climbers.
     In our old gardens we seem to be very short of Bourbons. We do have Souvenir de la Malmaison. Where are the other hundred or more? Probably they live along among Teas and Chinas, not differentiated. A little close observation might bring some old beauties into the limelight.
     Here are some points. Bourbons have aciculi mixed with scattered, hooked prickles. Teas and Chinas do not. Bourbon leaflets, like the others, are smooth above, but unlike the others, have pubescence beneath. They are generally rounder and thicker, as well. Peduncles differ. Bourbons are inclined to be glandular; Chinas smooth or slightly rough; Teas somewhat hispid. Tea roses are said to have "weak necks" but there is nothing very weak about some of them.
     It is not trite or hobby-ish to say, with the men of a hundred years ago, that Souvenir de la Malmaison as a sturdy, faithful beautiful garden rose, has not been surpassed. Bourbon blooms are not high pointed in the way of modern Hybrid Teas, but they surely are beautiful. In their great day, Bourbons were very exciting. Nothing could add more excitement to the old-rose fan of today than to find a dozen old Bourbon roses among the worthy denizens of old gardens.