520 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



greenhouses or conservatories. It has been chronicled that lifting 

 Gladiolus and ripening them under glass is of no use : I do not suppose 

 it is when the plants are merely pulled up and laid in bunches on the 

 borders. Such treatment may benefit ripened bulbs, but not those 

 which are in full growth. 1 am confident, from my own experience, 

 that any one having late Gladiolus will, by lifting them as above 

 directed and placing them in an airy structure until ripened, and the 

 succeeding season letting the sun have some effect before planting, 

 find that it is not altogether such an uncertain flower as it has got the 

 character of. R. P. Brotherston. 



DISBUDDIlSrG CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



A WRITER in the August number of the ' Gardener,' and whose com- 

 munication I have not been able to notice sooner, professing to quote 

 from a contemporary, says it was asserted early in the year by a culti- 

 vator that the finest Chrysanthemum flowers were "invariably pro- 

 duced upon the terminal bud." I apprehend from the remarks of 

 your correspondent that I am the party referred to, although he has 

 misrepresented my statements in regard to the subject. What I did 

 was to offer a challenge to Chrysanthemum-growers to controvert, by 

 ocular demonstration, a statement which I here reproduce. Your 

 correspondent could have accepted the challenge then and there, and 

 there would have been an opportunity by this time of deciding the 

 matter, but for reasons best known to himself he did not accept it. 

 Speaking from memory chiefly, what I stated elsewhere was this : 

 A Chrjjsanthenmm }>lant ivhich is grown on in a ItealtJu/ manner, 

 as regards culture — the slioots being thiuTied out in the ordinary way^ 

 and otlierioise attended to, hut not pinched or meddled tvith after the 

 foundation of the plant has been formed — almost invariably jyj^oduces 

 its best and largest floivers at the tops of the shoots, sometimes there 

 beijtg only one terminal floiver, and sometimes two or three. This is 

 what happens in the case of a Chrysanthemum shoot that is allowed to 

 complete its growth, and flower in a natural manner; and I asked 

 experienced growers to controvert my statement by producing a shoot 

 or a plant that behaved otherwise, — but no one has done so yet. But 

 if your correspondent, Mr Hinds, is as anxious to get to the truth of 

 the matter as he professes to be, let him prove by practical illustration 

 that I am wrong. 



In speaking of Chrysanthemum buds, I do not mean those abortive 

 buds that sometimes show themselves in July or a little later, and 

 never come to anything, and are never expected to do ; but I mean the 

 buds that actually do produce the first flowers on a naturally developed 

 shoot, and at the right season. The issue raised is a plain and simple one, 

 and if your correspondent can put aside irrelevant points for the time 



