4 BOOK OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 



Chamomiles, not Chrysanthemums. Only one of the 

 three survived, and some plants from this were sent to 

 Kew by a Mons. Cel, a nurseryman of repute near Paris, 

 a year later. The Old Purple was the name adopted 

 for them. 



M. Ramatuelle, a French writer, considerably helped 

 to popularise the new-comers by writing favourable 

 reports to some of the papers printed at that time in 

 France. 



A hundred years previous to this date a Dutch doctor, 

 Jacob Breynius, and a botanist of high repute in those 

 days, mentions the Chrysanthemum as Matricaria japonica 

 maxima and gives a list of six varieties. 



Again a Mr Sabine, secretary to the R. H. Society, 

 mentions, in 1764, a plant Matricaria indica growing in 

 the Apothecaries' gardens at Chelsea in 1764. 



With the two last instances no true record can be 

 traced that these were types of the large-flowering 

 Chrysanthemums as was introduced in 1789 by Mon. 

 Blancard. Whatever form or variety they were they 

 soon perished as nothing more is heard concerning them. 



PROGRESS 



From the year 1790, the date of the Chrysanthemum 

 being sent into this country under the name of the Old 

 Purple, we hear but little about it until six years later 

 when it is figured and described in the Botanical 

 Magazine as having flowered at a nursery in Chelsea, 

 and is given the Botanical name of C. indicum. 



The nurserymen and gardeners in England were 

 soon able to appreciate its value, and we read that in 

 the year 1824, twenty-seven varieties were being 

 cultivated at the Horticultural Gardens, Chiswick. 

 k This collection had been considerably helped by a 

 Mr John Reeves, the Society's agent at Canton, and a 



