Indeed, the 1933 American Rose Annual reference gives Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria x Mrs. Herbert Stevens as the parentage of Mme Louis Lens, and Briarcliff x a white HT as the parentage for White Briarcliff. The claim that White Briarcliff is the US name for Mme Louis Lens already starts appearing in the 1930s, but where the parentage is stated, until 1940 it is always Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria x Mrs. Herbert Stevens. One wonders if, subsequently, someone tried to merge the earlier records of parentage for the two roses -- given that it came to be believed that they were one and the same -- and came up with the composite (Briarcliff X Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria) X (Briarcliff X Mrs. Herbert Stevens). Briarcliff is a sport of Columbia, which I grow, and to be honest I see no traces of Columbia in Mme Louis Lens. I have never grown Mrs Herbert Stevens or Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria, but they make so much more sense than Briarcliff as Mme Louis Lens's parents. Mme Louis Lens has strong tea characteristics; and Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria might be a tea, while Mrs Herbert Steven is a notoriously tea-like HT.