Mr. SABINE on the Chrysanthemum Indicum of Linneus. 148 
to, which by the gardeners are called semi-double, from their 
having, as is supposed, more radial florets than are strictly natu- 
ral, I observed that the receptacles, as far as they were covered 
with the tubular florets, were destitute of paleæ, and that a few 
of the chaffy processes only were observable in the circumference 
of the flowers where the ligulate florets were placed. In the 
plants with double flowers, where the ligulate florets extend over 
the whole disc, paleæ were uniformly observable in greater or 
less quantity; but whenever any of the flowers of the latter plants 
from particular causes had lost the full double appearance and 
showed a portion of the disc covered with tubular florets, in those 
cases pale: ceased to be formed on that portion of the disc co- 
vered with the tubular florets. I therefore conclude, that the 
production of the paleæ on the disc, when the tubular are changed 
into ligulate florets, is the consequence of the luxuriance of the 
flowers; the rudiments of the paleæ which exist on the disc in 
the flower in its natural state are elongated into chaffy processes, 
by the same operating cause which converts the tubular into 
ligulate florets. 
As the existence of paleæ on the receptacle of the flower was 
the only ground on which the Chinese Chrysanthemums had 
been referred to the genus Anthemis, I presume that the facts 
above stated will be considered as conclusive against such refe- 
rence, and that consequently the original application by the 
English botanists of the Chinese Chrysanthemum to the genus 
Chrysanthemum is correct. 
Soon after I had examined the semi-double or single flowers 
of the Chinese Chrysanthemums, a plant which had been im- 
ported by Mr. Samuel Brookes, of Ball’s Pond, from China, 
and which he had presented to the Horticultural Society, came 
into blossom in the Society’s garden. On this plant it was with 
the greatest satisfaction I observed the flower conforming exactly 
with 
