8 BOOK OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 



"We need only inspect blooms of say the Queen type, 

 or any of the earlier raised incurves, to show how 

 rigorously the raisers kept to those ideals. 



Perhaps of all men connected with the progress of the 

 Chrysanthemum, Mr Robert Fortune might head the 

 list. It is principally through his services in connection 

 with the Royal Horticultural Society in the Far East, that 

 we have with us to-day the Pompon and Japanese type 

 of flower. 



He was sent out by the Society in the year 1842 to 

 collect botanical specimens in China. During his travels 

 he found on the island of Chusan two small flowering 

 Chrysanthemums, which were held in much esteem by 

 the natives. These he sent home to England where they 

 thrived, and one variety particularly was thought much of 

 and was named the Chusan Daisy. 



Some of the continental growers, though, saw possi- 

 bilities of a new race of Chrysanthemums by crossing 

 this with some of the older types, and thus we have the 

 present race of Pompons, perhaps not so beautiful or 

 showy as some of their brethren, but all the same 

 interesting to many. 



The year 1860 finds Mr Fortune again on a voyage 

 of discovery to the Far East. Besides revisiting China 

 he also journeys to Japan, and in his sojournings there 

 he discovers certain forms of Chrysanthemums or rather 

 certain flowers without form as cultivated by the 

 Japanese. 



Seven varieties of these weird looking flowers he 

 sends home to a Mr Standish, nurseryman at Bagshot. 

 These were grown and exhibited later without finding 

 much favour in the eyes of Chrysanthemumists. They 

 were late in flowering and this did not commend them, 

 as the general desire among growers at that period 

 seemed to be to obtain earlier flowering varieties. 



They were slowly adopted, but never made much 



