132 THE FLORIST. 



CULTURE OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 



If you thought it necessary to apologise last month for inserting 

 something more about the Chrysanthemum, I can hardly hope you 

 will think it right to notice this ; but it is a flower which is annually 

 growing in the public favour, and this is just the time when any hints 

 upon its culture are likely to be of service. 



Now, in common with all growers of the flower, I cannot but feel 

 an obligation to Messrs. Taylor and James for their lectures upon 

 its proper mode of cultivation, and I hope to profit largely by their 

 instructions. I also beg to express my obligations to the Florist for 

 the opportunity of reading those lectures. But at the same time, 

 there are two things in them which I think merit further discussion, 

 and I be^ your readers not to suppose the methods there given to be 

 the onl^ones for producing a successful result ; namely, the time 

 and mode of propagation, and the avoiding of stopping the plants. 



I have now about one-third of my young plants taken early in 

 the month of January ; and very fine, of course, they are. But 1 have 

 some struck last month in heat^ and then planted in the open ground, 

 which for the characteristics of excellence enumerated by Mr. Taylor 

 I should prefer. What the blooms from each may be on compa- 

 rison, I hope to know better next November. And while speaking 

 of propagation, it may be of service to mention that the Chr}^san- 

 themum is one of the few plants that strike indifferently at a joint 

 or at a distance from one. You need not therefore risk spoiling a 

 small specimen by taking off the head at a joint ; and so readily do 

 they strike, that out of 172 cuttings, 171 have taken with me this 

 year. 



And though it certainly does appear to me, as I have read in your 

 pages, to " dislike much stopping," yet of this I am certain, that 

 stopping does not always prove " a decided failure ;" for a finer spe- 

 cimen-plant than I had last year in Annie Salter, which I stopped 

 twice, I can hardly hope ever to see. Unhappily it had no flowers 

 (don't laugh ; but I am only a year old in Chrysanthemum growing); 

 for I suffered the buds to be nipped by an October frost. 



Iota. 



DESCRIPTIVE LISTS OF FRUITS. 



No. VI. 

 PEARS {continued from p. 77). 



5. Easter Beurre. A large Pear, of which the general form is 

 roundish obovate ; in some specimens the crown is rounded, in others 

 considerably flattened ; the base is broad, and indented by a large 

 cavity, and the whole surface is frequently uneven. Eye deeply sunk 

 in a wide, angular basin ; segments strong and leathery, and con- 



