From 1910 to 1914, Britain's Ellen Willmott published The Genus Rosa, with illustrations by Alfred Parsons. Today, though dated in many details, it remains, with Redoute's Les Roses, the essential taking off point for research into rose species. Below is an example of Ellen Willmott's treatment of one species, her article on R. gigantea, the giant "Empress Rose" of India, Burma and southern China. Bred with R. chinensis, the result was the tea rose, and later the hybrid tea. As Graham Stuart Thomas pointed out in 1987, "certain it is that the great convoluted petals, inbred through countless generations of hybrid roses, gave rise to the long-petalled shapely buds of the Tea roses, which are so tantalizingly beautiful." (Graham Stuart Thomas, A Garden of Roses, p. 88).

34 -- ROSA GIGANTEA Collett ex Crép.

Rosa gigantea

Rosa gigantea: caule elongato, sarmentoso; aculeis sparsis, robustis, conformi­bus, falcatis; foliolis 5, oblongis, acutis, magnis, minute simpliciter serratis, utrinque viridibus, glabris ; rhachi glabra ; stipulis angustis, adnatis, apicibus liberis ovato-lanceolatis ; floribus solitariis; pedicellis nudis, glabris; calycis tubo oblongo, nudo; lobis simplicibus, lanceolatis, apice foliaceis, dorso glabris ; petalis magnis, albis, late cuneatis ; stylis pubescentibus, liberis, inclusis ; fructu globoso, glabro, nudo ; sepalis patulis, demum deciduis ; carpellis fructiferis, magnis, castaneis, nitidis, glabris.

R. gigantea Collett ex Crépin in Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. vol. xxvii. pt. 2, p. 148 (1888) ; vol. xxviii. pt. 2, p. ii (1889).--Gard. Chron. ser. 3, vol. vi. p. 12, fig. 4 (1889).-- Collett & Hemsley in Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xxviii. pp. 6, 55, t. 9 (1890). -- Koehne, Deutsche Dendrol. p. 280 (1893).--Berger in Gard. Chron. ser. 3, vol. xxiii. pp. 375, 376 (1898) -- Rehder in Bailey, Cycl. Am. Hort. vol. iv. p. 1551 (1902). -­ Bot. Mag. vol. cxxx t. 7972 (1904). -- Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. lxxiii. p. 203 (1904). - C. K. Schneider, Ill. Handbuch Laubholzk. vol. i. p. 545 (1906).--Brandis, Indian Trees, p. 287 (1906).

Stems long, trailing; prickles uniform, scattered, stout, hooked. Leaflets 5, large, oblong, acute, finely simply toothed, the end one 2-1/2 - 3 in. long, the side ones distinctly stalked, green and glabrous on both surfaces; petioles glabrous ; stipules adnate, narrow, with small, ovate-lanceolate free points. Flowers large, solitary; pedicels naked, glabrous. Calyx-tube oblong, naked; lobes simple, lanceolate, with long foliaceous tips, 1-1/4 - 1-1/2 in. long, glabrous on the back. Petals white, broadly cuneate, 2 in. long. Styles free, included, pubescent. Fruit globose, glabrous, naked, bright red; sepals spreading, deciduous. Fruit carpels brown, shining, glabrous, 1/4 in. diameter.

Rosa gigantea was collected in 1888 in the Shan Hills, Upper Burma, at elevations of 4,000 to 5,000 feet, by the late General Sir Henry Collett, who sent dried specimens to Kew and to the Calcutta Botanic Garden, whence they were sent to Crépin with the name gigantea suggested by the discoverer. It has also been collected by Mr. W. Hancock and Dr. A. Henry in Mengtze in the province of Yun-nan. The flowers are said to be sometimes as much as fifteen inches in circumference.

Rosa gigantea grows well on the Riviera, but, though it is quite hardy in England, the sun has not sufficient power to bring it to the flowering stage. It blossomed for. the first time in England at Albury Park, Guildford, in 1903.

Rosa macrocarpa, which was found by Sir George Watt in Manipur in 1882, was believed by Crépin to be identical with Rosa gigantea, but Sir George himself considers them distinct. In an unpublished diary he gives the following description of Rosa macrocarpa, or, as he afterwards named it, Rosa xanthocarpa:

"An extensive climber, running over trees and forming at first straight unbranched stems, as thick as the arm, younger ones with a soft grey-brown bark and here and there short sharp hooked prickles; above completely ramified until it envelopes the trees on which it is found. It thus produces a truly superb effect, and, when seen from a distance, causes the trees to appear like magnolias, with large yellow flowers. The leaves when young have a rich brownish green tint; when older they become pale shining green; leaflets 5-7, ovate-oblong, acuminate, shortly and sharply serrate, the terminal one on a long petiole (1 in.), the others almost sessile; stipules very long, linear, adnate throughout their length (except their spreading terminal arms) and thus extending along the greater portion of the leaf-stalk ; in the more vigorous shoots they are conspicuous and red-coloured, but in the older parts they become very narrow. Prickles very few on the flowering branches, short, sharp, recurved ; on the young flowerless shoots large, massive, flat, recurved. Flowers solitary or two or three in the axils of the terminal leaves of the shoots; flower-buds very long, smooth, glaucous. Calyx-teeth erect in bud, long, lanceolate, acuminate, quite entire, not becoming foliaceous but embracing firmly the pointed bud, silky tomentose upon the upper surface and margins (ciliate), quite glabrous below (that is, the outer surface of the bud), sharply reflexed when the flower is fully expanded. Ovary (the hip) glabrous; achenes very large, massive, sparsely hairy, with long, protruding, free styles and yellow globular stigmas. Stamens numerous, anthers orange-coloured. The fleshy hip or fruit is eaten by the Nagas, becomes as large as a small apple, and is smooth, glabrous, yellow (certainly never' red, as has been said of the species grown in Europe) and sweetly scented."

"This species seems to me as possibly allied to, though quite distinct from, Rosa chinensis Jacq., and may probably be the true ancestral form of the Tea-roses. It was nowhere observed near villages, but was found frequenting the forests, far away from human dwellings.Since the Nagas do not cultivate flowering plants and seem never to have done so, there is no reason to doubt but that Rosa macrocarpa is, as stated, a truly indigenous plant on the north-eastern mountains of the Burma-Manipur frontier."

In support of his view that the two Roses should be kept distinct Sir George adds that in all the forms of Rosa gigantea under cultivation the leaflets are much narrower than in Rosa macrocapa, they are 7-9 in number instead of 5-7, with petioles often formidably armed; and moreover the flowers of Rosa gigantea are white, whilst those of Rosa macrocarpa are distinctly yellow. He suggests that the Rosa gigantea of cultivation may possibly be some hybrid of Rosa chinensis.