The China Asters. 



219 



although it had long been known in the Paris markets, but the 

 stock was controlled by a few persons. This variety also has the 

 freest and most wide spreading habit of growth, and the stems are 

 80 long that the variety is very useful for cut flowers. The Can- 

 delabra asters are very like the Queen of the Market in habit, but 

 are later. 



39. — Queen of th^i Market. The earliest type of China Aster. 



In such a range of type, it is impossible to recommend any one 

 of them as superior to all others. If one wants deep and glowing 

 colors, I should recommend the Truffaut asters, variously known as- 

 Perfection and Peony flowered, and this type has a most beautiful 

 pyramidal habit and a high-centered incurved comely flower (Figs. 

 40, 41). The shades of red are especially good in this type of aster. 

 Closely allied to this is the Semple strain, which has the distinction 

 of being the only well-marked type of American origin. This type 

 originated with James Semple, of Bellevue, Pennsylvania, who, by 

 continued selection, has brought it to a high degree of perfection. 

 The plant is a tall and robust grower, reaching two and a half and 

 even three feet high, with long and strong stems and very large 

 flowers (often three and a half inches across) with incurved and 

 often twisted rays. Two colors of this flne aster are now fixed, the 

 pink introduced in 1892 as Mary Semple, and the white, known a& 

 Semple White. 



