CHRYSANTHEMUM INDTCUM MINIMUM. DWARF 

 CHINESE VARIETIES.— 1. Le Jongleur. 2. Madame 

 MiRBEL. 3. Pequillo. 4. Bouton de Venus. 5. La Fiancee- 

 6. Renoncdle. 7. Elise Meillez. 



SINCE tlie Flora of China has poured her autumnal gifts over our 

 parterres, and decorated our greenhouses and sitting-rooms, the 

 winter of those situations is considerably shortened ; and of all the 

 flowering ornaments which that country has afforded us, none has so 

 much contributed towards enlivening the dreary months as this favourite 

 flower of the mandarins. 



In the Cliinese language the generic term of this tribe (Chrysan- 

 themum) is Kuk fa, or Kok fa, and those of the largest flowers are 

 distinguished by the name of So Ee kok, and the whole varieties are 

 generally called Yok qui lung kok fa. The beauty of tliese flowers 

 are frequently displayed through the entire empire on the lackered 

 Avare, for which they are so eminent, as well as pictured in the repre- 

 sentations of their saloons and trellised verandahs. 



The name Chrysantiiemum is derived from the Greek choros, gold, 

 and anthos, a flower (literally, " flowers of gold "). The name was 

 given to tiiis genus of plants, because the species which was most 

 familiar to the Greeks produces flowers of a gold colour. Thus by 

 forming tlie generic name from that one species of a golden colour, we 

 have the anomaly of the pink, lilac, white, yellow, purple, red, crimson, 

 brown, rose, and buff all indiscriminately styled Golden Flowers. 



The Indian or Cliinese Chrysanthemum was introduced into this 

 country in 1764, Miller having received it from Nimpu,and cultivated 

 it in the Botanic Garden at Chelsea. It was, however, lost, and a 

 second time introduced. M. Blanchard, a Marseilles merchant, brought 

 the well-known purple variety from China to France in 1789, from 



Vol. xviii. No. M.—N.S. K 



