Plate 380. 



JAPANESE CHRYSANTHEMUMS, IIK1) DRAGON 



\m» LEOPAIU). 



When, some years ago, we figured one of the Chrysanthe- 

 mums which Mr. Fortune had introduced from Japan, we 

 expressed our conviction that, strange and bizarre as the] were 

 in appearance, thej would yet, in the hands of some of our 



hybridizers, be found useful as the parents of a new race. The 

 present season has demonstrated the truth of our anticipations, 

 and the Japanese Chrysanthemums of Mr. Salter have created 

 quite a sensation in the horticultural world. From his very 

 numerous varieties we have selected two. premising that the 

 collection embraces many forms, some (as Tarantula) almost 

 like a spade, others like large tassels of cut paper ; some of 

 \er\ large dimensions, others just suitable for bouquets, while 

 they also possess a quality which will make them especially 

 useful, viz. that of blooming after the Chinese varieties, so that 

 they will be admirable winter-blooming plants, filling up the 

 time between the autumnal bloom and the early-flowerin» 

 spring plants. 



Mr. Fortune states that when he collected the varieties in 

 Japan, he left them at Shanghai in charge of a Chinese gar- 

 dener, but that owing to the heavy autumnal rains, the finest 

 wore lost, and only about a do/en kinds reached England. 

 ■•And now." he adds, " 1 come to the most curious part of my 

 story. Mr. Salter, of Hammersmith, having procured seed 

 from one, or at most two only of those varieties introduced bj 

 me. has raised a large number of new kinds, not only differing 

 in colour but in form also from the plant or plants from which 

 he obtained his seeds, but identical or nearly so with the varie- 

 ties now cultivated in Japan, and which 1 lost on the journey 



