Chrysanthemums. • 349 



five years, at least, English gardeners have been using the terms 

 *' crown " and '' terminal " buds in a technical sense peculiar to chrys- 

 anthemum culture alone. These words have grown in a natural 

 fashion, and nobody knows when they were first defined in their 

 present sense. Although the literature of this subject is very extensive, 

 the phenomena have never been illustrated, so far as I know, by more 

 than two sets of pictures. What, then, are these unique phenomena 

 that gardeners have noticed for twenty-five years, and what are crown 

 and terminal buds ? 



A crown bud is surroimded by vegetative shoots, and not by othe?- buds 

 (see figure 180). A terminal bud {in chrysanthemums') is suj'rounded by 

 other buds and not by vegetative shoots (see figure 181). These defini- 

 tions may be literally adhered to for practical results. The chrysanthe- 

 mum specialists are pretty well agreed in accepting these definitions, 

 but there is reason to believe that hundreds of the lesser growers in 

 America have entirely missed the whole problem. This is due chiefly 

 to the fact that chrysanthemums for commercial purposes are planted 

 out much later than in England, July 12 to 20 being the American 

 rule. Now, late struck cuttings give very few crown buds, and the 

 state of things pictured in figure 180 very rarely occurs in America 

 except when plants are started very early for special purposes, such as 

 exhibitions and standards. As a consequence, it is commonly supposed 

 that the crown bud is the top bud of the cluster shown in figure 181, 

 and that the only question to decide is whether to keep that one, or 

 one of the other flower buds of the cluster. Thus the whole point is 

 missed entirely, for it is a matter of time primarily, and only incident- 

 ally a matter of position. (As a matter of fact, the central bud of the 

 cluster is much larger and rounder than it is shown in figure 181, and 

 usually gives the best results. But a bug may nip it, or an accident 

 make it useless.) This widespread popular misconception must be 

 entirely removed at the start. The mistake, however, is an easy one 

 to make for other reasons. Every good catalogue now a-days tells in 

 many cases which bud to use, the periodicals reiterate the directions, 

 the mass of writings on the subject is very great, and the beginner 

 naturally infers that the choice is always offered to him, and that it is 

 a mere matter of choosing. Only the experienced grower knows that 

 he cannot always get what he wants, and that he must scheme for his 

 crown buds — plan for them a whole season in advance. A third source 



