310 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



of the genus Anthemis, while the receptacle of the true genus Chry- 

 santhemum is without chaff like scales ; nevertheless they are, in my 

 opinion, both the same species. In the Horticultural Society's 

 Transactions of 1831, a History of the Chrysanthemum is given by 

 Mr. [Sabine, who says they were cultivated in the gardens of Holland, 

 and described by the celebrated Breynius as far back as 1688. He 

 calls it Matricaria Japonica, and speaks of six varieties ; but it 

 appears to have been afterwards lost, as no gardener in 1821 knew 

 anything of them. In January, 1826, Mr. Sabine, again referring 

 to the chrysanthemum, says (speaking of the rapid progress the 

 flower has made in this country in a few years), that the shows of 

 the flowers at the Society's gardens in 1824 and 1825 had been 

 acknowledged by its admirers to be (taking them as a mass) the 

 most splendid and gorgeous exhibitions ever seen, even in the gayest 

 time of the year. The show consisted of 700 pot plants. They 

 began to bloom in October, and continued till December, with now 

 and then changing a few of them for later blooming ones, thus en- 

 livening the garden at a period when there was nothing else to attract 

 attention. Many of these varieties were collected by jMr. Parkes at 

 China and Bengal in 1821, and some of them sent home by the 

 Society's gardener, Mr. John Potts. The whole of the different 

 varieties in the garden at this period was forty-eight. These were 

 introduced into the gardens of England at the following times : — 

 one from China to France in 1789, was brought from Kew to Paris in 

 1790 ; seven from Sir Abraham Hume, between 1798 and 1808 ; one 

 from Mr. Evans in 1802 ; one by Captain Eowes in 1816 ; one from 

 Captain Larking in 1817 ; one by Messrs. Brooks in 1819 ; one by 

 Mr. Eewes in 1824 ; two not known ; four are English sports ; and 

 the remainder were sent from China by the Society's agents up to 

 1824. Mr. Colville, a nurseryman at Chelsea, sent to the Society 

 a sport in 1822, of a pale pink, grown from the changeable buff; we 

 have a great many at the present time from sports exceedingly 

 good — namely, Hermine, Trilby, Cedo Nulli, Yellow Eormosum, 

 Lilac Cedo Nulli, the coloured plates of several varieties of which 

 were shown — namely, the early blush, Parkes's small yellow blush, 

 ranuncula, the tasseUed yellow, the changeable buff", the curled 

 blush, the tasselled lilac and two-coloured red, the pale buff, 

 the Windsor small yellow, the clustered yellow, the clustered 

 pink, the semi-double orange, the starry purple, the two-coloured 

 incurved, the late quilled yellow, Waratah, the golden Indian, the 

 double white Indian, the small yellow, the quilled pink, the semi- 

 double pink, the semi-double quilled orange, and the pale purple. 



Mr. Munroe. in a paper read before the Horticultural Society, 

 in January, 1826, says, " Since the establishment of the Society in the 

 year 1818, considerable attention has been paid to the culture of 

 this plant, and the improvement is so great in its appearance, that it 

 rivals those grown in its native country." He then gives his mode 

 of treatment, and I find his directions "differ in a very trifling degree 

 from that generally practised now, both as regards compost and sup- 

 plying liquid manures ; and I have no doubt that in those days, had 

 be possessed our present improved varieties, he would have grown 

 them as fine. He speaks of Mr. Joseph Wells as the best grower 



