354 Bulletin 147. 



A maybe looked upon as nature's device for making the plant branch. 

 It is not designed to produce flower or seed itself, but by giving a 

 temporary check, it makes the plant branch, and a branched chrysanthe- 

 mum stands a better chance in the struggle for existence than an 

 unbranched one, because it bears more flowers and, therefore, more 

 seeds. The chief merits of crowns, viz., earliness and size, may easily 

 be explained by the earlier setting of the bud and the longer period of 

 growth. 



Terminals, on the other hand, are likely to be better in every way 

 except size and earliness. 



The practice of bud taking may be formulated into the following 

 rules, but there are numberless exceptions, and, not to mention other 

 complications, two factors alone — the locahty of the grower and the 

 date of the show—are enough to make the whole matter a personal 

 problem. 



(i) The season may be lengthened at both ends by the judicious 

 choice of buds. 



(2) Crowns may be used on late varieties to show them at exhibi- 

 tions for which they would be, naturally, too late. Conversely, termi- 

 nals may be used on early varieties for a similar purpose. 



(3) Crowns may be used for close-jointed and terminals for long- 

 jointed varieties. This does not mean that on dwarf varieties crowns 

 will give better results than terminals. It means that tall, long- 

 jointed varieties are likely to become too tall and bare-necked under 

 crowns. Dwarfs under crowns may be elongated just as much rela- 

 tively as tall sorts under crowns, but not so much absolutely. 



(4) In England, crowns are preferable in the north and terminals 

 in the south, in order to compete at the London shows.* 



(5) In England, crowns are preferable for the Japanese sorts, and 

 terminals for the incurved.t 



(6) Never keep a July bud. 



(7) In England the best time to select crowns is between August 



*W. Hinds in Gardeners' Chronicle, March, 1879, p. 376, where the writer 

 states that the North Country growers would have few flowers before 

 December except for general decorations unless crowns were used. Similar 

 statements have been frequently repeated. 



\ E. Molyneux in The Garden, 34 : 228 (1888). 



