CHINESE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 399 



beauty of these flowers is frequently displayed on 

 the lackered ware for which they are so eminent. 



The name of Chrysanthemum is derived from 

 the Greek j^^i^aoj-, gold, and a)^Qoff a flowcj*, which 

 was given to this genera of plants, because the 

 species most familiar to the Greeks produces flowers 

 of a gold colour. This shows the error of form- 

 ing the generic name of plants from the colour, 

 since in one species of Chrysanthemum we have 

 all the colours of the rainbow ; and thus the white, 

 the pink, the Hlac, the purple, and the yellow, are 

 all indiscriminately styled golden flowers. 



The Indian or Chinese Chrysanthemum was 

 introduced into this country as long back as the 

 year 1764, Miller having received it from Nimpu, 

 and cultivated it in the botanic garden at Chelsea, 

 -where it was probably lost through some accident, 

 as it is not mentioned in the first edition of the 

 Hortus Kewensis. 



It was a second time introduced into Europe by 

 Monsieur Blanchard, a merchant of Marseilles, 

 who brought the well-known purple variety from 

 China to France in 1789, from whence it reached 

 England in 1795, and being then considered a new- 

 plant, it was sold at a high price by the nursery- 

 men in the neighbourhood of our metropolis, until 

 its easy propagation became known. It is only 

 within these last few years that its cultivation 



