Magazine  (22 Apr 1916)  Page(s) 192.  Includes photo(s).
 
Prince Charlie's Rose
Sir Herbert Maxwell, in the issue of March 18, page 135, is quite right in emphasizing the necessity of employing Latin names for plants where exactness is required.  I am interested in his reference to my remark about Rosa alba being called Prince Charlie's Rose.  He tells us that "in the Southwest of Scotland we call the double Burnet Rose (Rosa spinosissima) Prince Charlie's Rose."  I do not question his statement, as it refers to his own district, although it is new to me, but in other parts of the South-West of Scotland it is Rosa alba which goes under the name of Prince Charlie's Rose.
In discussing the point some time ago with a member of an old Jacobite family which was in close association with the Stewarts at the times of the attempts to recover the Crown, I was shown a form of R. alba as being Prince Charlie's Rose.  This agreed with the general tradition in at least a great part of the South-West, and is quite in accord with most of the available literature on the subject.  All the probabilities would point to its being the White Rose of York, which was the badge of the armies of Prince Charlie.  It is true that there is some doubt as to which was the true York Rose.  As the late Canon Ellacombe remarked in his "Plant Lore of Shakespeare"; " The White Rose of York has never been satisfactorily identified.  It was clearly a cultivated Rose, and by some is supposed to have been the wild White Rose (R. arvensis) grown in a garden.  But it is very likely to have been the Rosa alba which was a favourite in English gardens in Shakespeare's time...  I have little doubt that this is the White Rose of York; it is not the R. alba of Dr. Lindley's monograph, but the double variety of the British R. arvensis."  On the other hand, Folkard, who is generally well informed, tells us in his " Plant Lore, Legends and Lyrics" that "A White Provins Rose was the emblem of the Stuarts upon the accession of the Duke of York to the throne of England...  It was said to come into flower on the 10th of June, a day interesting to Jacobites, as being the birthday of the Chevalier St. George."  In that delightful little book, "Stray Leaves from a Border Garden," there is nothing to identify the particular Rose in the reference: "...there is a beautiful bush of 'Prince Charlie' White Roses in bloom by an old mossy tombstone, the White Rose which used to be so common in Scottish gardens long ago."  R. alba is still a common plant in Scottish gardens, but the double white R. spinosissima is scarce.  —Scotch Rose.

Magazine  (18 Mar 1916)  Page(s) 135.  
 
White Roses. — A good deal of ink has been spilt of late in dispraise of the use of Latin names for plants and in advocating the employment of existing English names and the invention of new ones.  That is all very well, supposing we could all agree upon English names, old and new; but could we?  An instance of the ambiguity which already prevails occurs in "Scotch Rose's" note under the above heading (page 110).  "The old Rosa alba", he says, "as represented in Scotch gardens by the double one generally called Prince Charlie's Rose is a good white."  So it is; but in the South-West of Scotland we call the double Burnet Rose (Rosa spinosissima) Prince Charlie's Rose.  Where exactness of nomenclature is required, recourse must be had to a dead language. — Herbert Maxwell, Monreith.

Magazine  (4 Mar 1916)  Page(s) 110.  
 
White Roses.
The old Rosa alba, as represented in Scottish gardens by the double one generally called Prince Charlie's Rose, is a good white. —Scotch Rose.

Magazine  (Jun 1907)  Page(s) 239.  Includes photo(s).
 
Rosier blanc a Fleur pleine (Rosa alba flore pleno).
Figure de l'Hortus Eysteitensis publiée en 1612.
 

Book  (1885)  Page(s) 38, Vol 1.  
 
Rosier velu. Variétés.
Rosier blanc. Fleurs blancs.
Alba maxima multiplex. Prévost. — Arbrisseau vigoureux; pédoncules glanduleux et hispides au-dessus des bractées, glabres au-dessous; tube du calice ovale fusiforme, ceux de la fleur centrale hispides glanduleux, ceux des fleurs formant la circonférence du corymbe, glabres; fleurs semi-doubles, grandes, à pétales larges, blanches, un peu nankin au centre avant leur entier épanouissement.

Book  (1848)  Page(s) 608.  
 
Catalogue of Plants. Rosaceæ. -- The Roses.
566. Rosa alba, Linn.. ♄ Crimea. White Rose.
β. Rosa alba flore pleno. Double White Rose.

♄ A tree or shrub.

Website/Catalog  (1842)  Page(s) 28.  
 
Rosa alba flor. pleno, weisse gefüllte Rose ...8 Schilling

Book  (1838)  Page(s) 266.  
 
Rosa Alba. Alba Maxima Multiplex. Shrub, vigorous. flowerstalks, glandulous and hispid below the floral leaves; smooth above. Tube of calyx, oval-fusiform, those of the central flower hispid-glandulous; those of the surrounding flower smooth. Flowers, in clusters, semi-double, large; the petals large, white; almost nankeen in the centre previous to their full expansion.

Book  (1837)  Page(s) 18.  
 
Rosiers Blanc
Alba 1^re Série...
(R. Blanc double
(- Vulgaris plena, Desportes
[synonyms]

Book  (1836)  Page(s) 240.  
 
Rosier Blanc. Alba maxima multiplex. Prévost. Arbrisseau vigoureux; pedoncules glanduleux et hispides au-dessus des bractées, glabres au-dessous; tube du calcie ovale fusiforme, ceux de la fleur centrale hispides glanduleux, ceux des fleurs formant la circonférence du corymbe, glabres; fleurs semi-doubles, grandes, à pétales larges, blanches, un peu nankin au centre avant leur entier épanouissement.