Redoute’
Rosa berberifolia (‘Barberry-Leaved Rose’) Description… corolla of 5 canary-yellow petals, each with a basal purplish spot… This rose, distinguished from all others by the simple leaves, has been brought back from Persia, where it is very common, by Michaux Sr. and Olivier. The latter sent it to Cels Sr. who flowered it for the first time in Paris…
Roger Phillips:
R. persica is the only wild rose] which has a deep red eye at the centre of its yellow flowers… it is difficult to grow and to mate with other roses. The botanists eventually took it out of the genus Rosa altogether, and renamed it Hulthemia persica. Only one hybrid between R. persica and another rose had ever been known. It was raised in the Luxembourg Gardens in 1836, and was called ‘Hardii’. It also has yellow flowers, paler but larger than those of R. persica, and it exhibits a fine red eye… [Alec] eventually got seed of [R. persica] by means of a botanist who was travelling to Persia, its chief native habitat… he shared the seed with [Jack Harkness who] did a lot of interesting work with it, raising the first recorded hybrids from it since 1836.