CHINESE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 481 



The name of Chrysanthemum is derived from 

 the Greek x^^^^S^ gold, and av^og , a flower, and 

 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 forming 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 lilac, 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 Chel- 

 sea, 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 

 nurserymen in the neighbourhood of our metro- 

 polis until its easy propagation became known ; 

 but it is only within these last few years that its 

 cultivation has attracted the notice of florists in 



