So wrote Lord Penzance four years into his hybridizing program as he contemplated in 1889 which roses could be crossed to make interesting new classes harkening to the Bourbons and Noisettes.
The proceedings of the National Rose Conference of that year are at the link below; Lord Penzance’s thoughts are on (real page numbered pages ) 209-216.
At the same meeting a thirty-seven year old Rev. Pemberton showed plants of R. arvensis, R. rubignosa and R. canina, almost two decades before he introduced his first hybrid musks. Is it a coincidence that at this meeting there was discussion of the potential of R. polyantha (that we now call Rosa multiflora)?
Link: books.google.com/books?id=PVoCAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0PYMAY1zX1Hr4R7KiSXSnv