Recent Chrysanthemums. 



"Within the past ten years, the chrysanthemum of the florists has 

 risen from a very inferior position, commercially, to one of the 

 greatest prominence in this country. The first regular chrysan- 

 themum exhibition in America was held under the auspices of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1868, but this and the sister 

 society in Pennsylvania awarded prizes for chrysanthemums much 

 earlier. In those days, however, and perhaps for many years pre- 

 vious, the chrysanthemum was treated as a hardy plant, and culti- 

 vated in the outdoor gardens. Better flowers and plants came later, 

 with the idea of affording them greenhouse protection, and then we 

 find Dr. H. P. Walcott, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Mr. John 

 Thorpe, then of Queens, Long Island, to be the most prominent 

 raisers of seedhngs, cultivators and advocates of the chrysanthemum 

 in general. 



But the courageous attempts of these and several other persons 

 in various parts of the country, particularly in the vicinity of Bos- 

 ton, Massachusetts, met with only a small share of success. Not, 

 indeed, until the later years of the past decade was anything ap- 

 proaching popular esteem for the chrysanthemum aroused in the 

 American people, and then it was mainly due to a happy speculation 

 on the part of one of our prominent nurserymen. In 1888, Mr. W. 

 A. Manda, then of Cambridge, Massachusetts, now at South Orange, 

 'Ne'w Jersey, purchased the famous variety, Mrs. Alpheus Hardy, 

 from a Boston florist for the sum of $1,500 — a price un- 

 precedented in the chrysanthemum world. This event, and the 

 subsequent advertising of the variety, did more to render the chrys- 

 anthemum an object of public fame in America than all other pre- 

 vious efforts combined. The demand for these plants at once began 

 to grow with leaps and bounds, annual exhibitions sprung into exist- 

 ence in all parts of the country, and many florists and nurserymen 

 created special departments to cover the work of securing new varie- 

 ties and to select, propagate and distribute those of greatest merit. 



