Book  (2003)  Page(s) 92.  
 
R. polyantha.

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 164-165.  
 
Du fait de son intérêt pour la soie, la ville de Lyon avait, à l'époque, des rapports assez étroits avec l'Asie, y compris le Japon. Or , en 1862 , Coignet , un ingénieur français au service du gouvernement japonais , qui s ' intéressait aux sciences naturelles , avait envoyé au maire de Lyon , des graines du rosier appelé Rosa multiflora , ou encore Rosa polyantha . C'est un rosier botanique de Chine et du Japon dont il existe plusieurs formes: certaines avaient été introduites en Angleterre depuis le début du siècle ("carnea" en 1804, "platyphylla" en 1817, "alba" en 1844), mais le rosier type ne fut introduit en Europe qu'en 1862, par ce dénommé Coignet. Le maire de Lyon confia ces graines à Jean-Baptiste Guillot fils, l'un des rosiéristes les plus renommés de la ville. Celui-ci les sema, obtint des fleurs dont il sema à nouveau les graines et, finalement, obtint une variété qu'il appela 'Pâquerette' et mis au commerce en 1875.

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 142.  
 
...One sees a certain amount of speculation that China cultivars supposedly in the proximity of Guillot's R. multiflora 'Polyantha' played a paternal role in the generation of these first Polyanthas. The nature and range of variation evident in the "many seedlings" mentioned in Guillot's account would certainly lend an air of plausibility to this speculation - but seedlings of similar nature and range of variation were also produced independently by other specimens of R. multiflora 'Polyantha', most notably that owned by Guillot's fellow Lyonnais breeder Rambaux. It thus seems probable that the similar R. chinensis characteristics manifested in these two separate crops of seedlings from different specimens - seedlings which in aggregate seem to be of the nature of an F2 generation rather than an F1 - were due to R. chinensis-like genes inherent in R. multiflora 'Polyantha', in which flowers having a yellowish tint and a tea-like perfume further hint at a hybrid Oriental background.

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 141.  
 
Polyantha [The author cites from the Journal des Roses 1878] "In February 1869, I [Guillot fils] sowed a great quantity of seed which I had harvested from the variety 'Polyantha', a Multiflora variety originating in Japan which was very much a climber, and non-remontant, having a quite small single white blossom much like that of a bramble or strawberry, and blooming in panicles....Quite a few bore flowers of moderate quality, singles, semi-doubles, and full blossoms, with petals as large as the roses of our gardens, and with a variety of colors: yellow, white, bright pink...

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 317-319.  
 
R. multiflora 'Polyantha' [The author cites from the Revue Horticole 1876]....
"This species originated in Japan, whence it was introduced into France for the first time, as far as we know, around 1862. It was the Fleuriste de Paris which received the first slip, which still exits, and which, planted in the nursery of Longchamps, grew into a strong shrub which, each year, is covered with thousands of blossoms of a very beautiful white. Here are the characteristics of the Type: Shrub extremely bushy, very vigorous; non-blooming branches nearly climbing, growing to nearly two meters, in the case of younfg plants on their own roots; strong thorns, enlarged at the base, slightly hooked; 5-7 leaflets, sometimes even nine pairs [?] of oval-elliptical leaflets, which are soft, gentle to the touch, villose, and thoroghly but shallowly dentate; rachis rust-colored, with short prickles similarly colored, enlarged at the base and sharply barbed on each side; blooming branches comparatively slender, with smaller leaflets which are more rounded and more oviously dentate than those of the sterile branches, inflorescence in long, pyramidal, subconical panicles, quite upright, much branched; buds very small, solitary, or most often clustered, on a shortly-villose flower stalk; blossoms lightly and pleasantly fragrant, the scent resembling that of Tea roses, pure white, or slightly sulphurous; 5 wedge-shaped petals, very large at the summit, which, in the middle, exhibits a large notch, giving it the appearance of the 5-armed Maltese Cross...: hips ...very small, with deciduous sepals, beautiful glossy red, as if varnished, at maturity, with many long and narrow seeds. It blossoms at the end of May, and is very ornamental. If perhaps this species originated in Japan, it is also, we are told, found in China... It is from this latter country that Monsieur A. Leroy's firm has received it with no other name than that of 'new rose'....

Book  (1981)  Page(s) 66.  
 
About 1865, Robert Fortune, who had been active plant collector in China and Japan for a number of years, sent a low-growing, non-recurrent form of Rosa multiflora home to England. The flowers were pink, semi-double and came in trusses. In 1870 the Mayor of Lyon in France received a plant of it which was put into the local park. One way or another it was soon widely distributed and came into the hands of Jean Sisley, who obtained a number of interesting seedlings from it. It is very likely that he sent one of these seedlings to his friend, the nurseryman Guillot in Lyon...

...in 1876, the French gardener Carrière, gave Guillot's prototype the name of R. polyantha, ... without knowing that this name was already in existence. Rehder (1902) called the same rose R. multiflora x R. chinensis without further specification.

Book  (1981)  Page(s) 93.  
 
1844 R. multiflora alba introduced from Japan. Very double, opening pale pink then fading to white.
1862 Coignet, a French engineer in the employ of the Japanese government, sent seeds of R. multiflora to the Mayor of Lyon who passed them on to Guillot.

Magazine  (May 1966)  Page(s) 2. trimester, p. 20.  
 
Tableau Récapitulatif des différents Porte-Greffes
Rosa polyantha; Origine: Chine, Japon; Multiplication: Semis, bouture; Greffage: sur racine, Ecusson sur semis; Terrain: Résiste mal au calcaire; Température: Moyen; Humidité: Moyen; Vigueur: moyenne; Longevité: Moyenne; Resistance aux maladies: Faible; Formes améliorées: - ; Races ou formes préferentielles: Rosiers Thé; Lieu d'utilisation: Pays méditerranéens et Région Lyonnaise, Angleterre

[see 'Manetti' for photo of whole table]

Book  (1937)  Page(s) 76.  
 
Polyantha Hort. (multiflora x chinensis) [ploidy] 14

Book  (1936)  Page(s) 369.  
 
du Japon (polyantha) ? ? ; white