Book  (2001)  Page(s) 177.  
 
Mignonette ...Seedling of a seedling of R. multiflora 'Polyantha'; the immediate parent is probably the 'Polyantha Alba Plena Sarmentosa' one sees to have been much used in breeding in Lyon, though unreleased.

Book  (1981)  Page(s) 93.  
 
1844 R. multiflora alba introduced from Japan. Very double, opening pale pink then fading to white.

Magazine  (1910)  Page(s) 122.  
 
Visite au Domaine des Barres. École forestière et Fruticetum de M. Maurice de Vilmorin. 
Les membres de la Société nationale d'acclimatation ont fait le 21 juin 1909 un très intéressante excursion au domaine des Barres...
Rosiers intéressantes (R. foliolosa, R. hybride de rugosa et duc d'Édimbourg, R. polyantha double, R. macrophylla, etc.)

Website/Catalog  (1907)  Page(s) 14.  
 
Climbers...Polyantha (multiflora) yellowish white, shaded salmon, small, semi-double.

Website/Catalog  (1893)  Page(s) 8.  
 
Rosiers sarmenteux....Polyantha (introduit du Japon par von Siebold 27): Rosier multiflore. Fl. blanc jaunâtre passant au jaune saumoné, petite, plate, pl., odor. Arbr. vig., fl. en panicules. Un des meilleurs sarmenteux!

Translation:
Climbing roses....Polyantha (introduced from Japan by Siebold [18]27): multiflora-rose. yellowish white bloom passing to salmon-yellow, small, flat, double, fragrant. Vigorous plant, blooms in clusters. One of the best climbers!

Book  (1889)  Page(s) 123.  
 
Climbers...
57 Polyantha (own type). Very small, double, booms in clusters, with 80 to 100 blooms on a branch. Yellowish white with salmon-colour.

Magazine  (6 Feb 1886)  Page(s) 118.  
 
The type, the sarmentose Polyantha, is a native of Japan, whence it was introduced about twenty years ago, by Fortune. But little attention was paid to it at first; indeed, so much was this the case, that the director of our Park, M. Bonnet, did not think it worth a place among other Roses there, and gave me the plant of it which he had received from the importer. About four years later I had sown some seeds gathered from the type, and I obtained several double varieties, all sarmentose, but not any perpetual. From one of these, which is still in my garden, I gave some seed to M. J.B. Guillot, from which he obtained the first dwarf perpetual bloomer in 1872; this he sent out in 1875, and named it Paquerette. It is a free bloomer, double, and pure white. About the same time the late M. Ph. Rambaux had sown a great many seeds obtained from a plant which I gave him of the double-flowered white Polyantha, a different kind from the type, being yellowish white, and also bearing large trusses of flowers, but not perpetual. From this he obtained several dwarf seedlings, but not so dwarf as Paquerette. One of them was particularly remarkable, inasmuch as it had flowers larger than those of Paquerette, and pure white. It was named Anne Marie de Montravel. The double white Polyantha is not so much cultivated as it deserves to be....Jean Sisley. Monplaisir, Lyons.

Magazine  (1 Sep 1884)  Page(s) 502.  
 
A propos du Rosa polyantha, qu’il a largement contribué à répandre, M. Jean Sisley écrivait, l. c. :
Ce R. polyantha, simple, que j’ai donné autour de moi, a déjà produit, sans fécondation artificielle, des variétés très-distinctes et très-remarquables. Guillot fils en a obtenu à fleurs doubles, jaunes, comme celles du Rosier de Banks, et des doubles rouges, et une qu’il dit remontante; d’autres qui, par le feuillage, ressemblent aux microphylles, mais aucune de ces variétés n’a conservé ce qui distingue le type : la floraison en panicule, qui, selon moi, en fait le plus grand mérite et le distingue de tous les autres Rosiers..,

Magazine  (Jul 1881)  Page(s) 200-201.  
 
Rosa polyantha. —.... First I would say in the Botanical Index is a short article on 'Rosa polyantha" (March number, page 31), from Jean Sisley, which is more complete than the one published in the Garden, and your correspondent "Bergen " could procure, either direct or through some of our importing florists, some of the hybrids that promise to be a superior article and indeed seem to be the stock of a new race of roses."
Case's Botanical Index is a quarterly, so cheap and so useful that we should hope most of our readers who can afford it, subscribe for it. In this case, we should not want to repeat in our pages what they already see. But in view of the probable importance of this new class of roses, we transfer what Mr. Sisley says of it :
" This species* is originally from Japan, from where it was imported to France about fifteen years ago by Robert Fortune, with several others. It is a very handsome shrub, with slender branches of a light and glossy green, with few and slight prickles, attaining about the height of six feet in one year. The leaves are small, bright green, very pretty, and last very late in autumn. It is very hardy, has resisted since its introduction our most severe winters without any protection. The flowers are of a pure white, small and single like those of Rubus, and bloom in panicles like those of the Lilac, appear very early in spring, last very long, but bloom but once. It requires no pruning, and does better without any. It seeds abundantly, and produces scarcely any suckers.
" In Japan it is to be found on the hills, near the seashore. It has until lately produced no varieties in Japan, except one with semi-double flowers, of the size of single ones, which most likely does not proceed from seed, but by accident. I was one of the first to possess it very soon after its introduction, but paid very little attention to it for several years. But five years ago I gathered a great quantity of seed and distributed it to several of the Rosareans around me. From it a great number of varieties were produced the year following, and but very few like the type, but principally a great number with double flowers like those of the Multiflora, and a few very similar to Rosa Canina; and that without artificial fecundation. This first generation was already very remarkable, as it could not be ascertained whether it was produced by the change of climate, by the fecundation by insects or by the natural law of variation.
" But what was more wonderful and consequently exceedingly interesting for the observer, is that from the seeds of the double varieties of this first generation were produced at the same time in different places dwarf plants and perpetual bloomers, completely' different from the original type except by their leaves. The first was obtained by Guillot fils and sent out by him three years ago under the name of Polyantha Paquerette. This was considered a great event.
" This variety is very pretty, very dwarf, and nearly like the Lawrenceana. It is a profuse bloomer. The flowers are pure white, very double and well shaped, and larger than those of the single type, but smaller than those of the parent.
"The second was raised by Phillippe Rambaux, also from a double variety of the first generation, and sent out by his widow, last year, under the name of Polyantha Anne Marie de Montravel. It is not as dwarf as Paquerette, but the flowers are larger and more numerous on each truss I have counted on one flower stalk sixty blooms. They are also white, very full and well shaped, and are produced in great number all the year round.
" The third variety of this class, also a seedling from a double variety of the first generation, has been obtained by Mad. Veuve Ducher, also of Lyons, and advertised this autumn under the name of Polyantha Cecile Brunner. The plant is in growth intermediate between the first and second, and also a perpetual bloomer. The flowers are double and of a good size for such a dwarf plant, but differ in color from its predecessors. They are bright pink, with a yellowish centre ; and it also differs from the two others, as it is the production by artificial fecundation of a Polyantha by a tea, Souvenir d'un Ami', of which it has the fragrance. It is thus a precious acquisition.
"These three varieties will certainly make very good plants for forcing and cut flowers. Several other varieties of this new class have been raised in Lyons and are now in propagation, and will most likely be sent out next year in autumn."

* I say species, because it is a conventional term.

Magazine  (27 Nov 1880)  Page(s) 542.  
 
Rosa polyantha. — From this small, white- flowered Rose, remarkable on account of its blooms being in clusters, great numbers of varieties have been obtained, nearly all with double flowers like those of R. multiflora, and to which but little attention has been paid, most likely, because there is nothing particularly striking in their shape and colour.