FLOWER AND PLANT LORE. 



BY EDWARD TYRRELI,, TORONTO. 

 CHRYSANTHEMUM— NATIONAL FLOWER OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 



A PLANT with small yellow flowers 

 was brought from Nimpu, China, 

 in 1764, and cultivated for a short 

 time in the Botanical Gardens, Chelsea, but 

 was soon lost. The next one, known as 

 the old red or purple, the first of the large 

 flowering varieties, was introduced from 

 France in 1795, where it had been known 

 for about six years, and received into the 

 Royal Botanical Gardens, although the in- 

 genious florist of the far east had, with 

 great ardour, cultivated them for many cen- 

 turies. 



Ihe name Chrysanthemum was given by 

 the Greeks, and is derived from the Greek 

 words Chrysos (gold) Anthos (a flower), 

 as it appears they only knew the yellow 

 flower, and this name has since been handed 

 down and applied to this genera of plants, 

 although we have them in nearly all the col- 

 ors of the rainbow. 



Mr. John Reeves, a tea buyer at Canton, 

 who acted as agent for the London Horti- 

 cultural Society, was very energetic and in- 

 creased the stock by procuring and sending 

 over numbers of plants of various colors. 

 Mr. Salter says the first English seedlings 

 were raised in 1835, and in 1849 he had over 

 four hundred new varieties. 



The first Chrysanthemum exhibition was 

 held in 1843, ^Y the flower loving people of 

 Norwich, Norfolk. At the close of the war 

 with China, 1842, when Hong-Kong and 

 the Isle of Chusan were retained by the 

 British, Mr. Robert Fortune was sent out 

 by the London Horticultural Society to col- 

 lect rare plants, and one of the curiosities 

 he fell in with was the Chusan daisy. This 

 and another small flower from the same 

 source were the parents of the tribe known 

 from their resemblance to a rosette, as 

 Pom-poms. These were introduced in 

 1847. 



In Japan, a favorite floral decoration at 

 fetes and festivals, consists in artificial 

 chrysanthemum ladies made of many thou- 

 sands of blossoms and placed in alcoves or 

 summer houses, where they attract numer- 

 ous admirers. Mr. Parsons, in his "Notes 

 on Japan," says : " The first really fine 

 chrysanthemums I saw were in Yokohama 

 early in November. I was disappointed 

 to find that they were in temporary sheds 

 put up to protect them from rain and sun, 

 and not in masses out of doors, as I ex- 

 pected to see them. They were excellently 

 grown, and in the softened light of the oil- 

 paper shades their colors showed to great 

 advantage. The plants are treated by them 

 much as they are with us. Some plants 

 arc reduced to a single stem, on which one 

 enormous blossom is allowed to develop, 

 with each flower stiffly tied to a horizontal 

 support. But the excellence of the gar- 

 dener is best shown in growing large 

 bushes, which have been known to carry as 

 many as four hundred flowers of medium, 

 size, all in perfect condition on the same 

 day. An English gardener who had visited 

 every show within reach of Tokio, includ- 

 irlg the Emperor's celebrated collection -n 

 the palace grounds, said that he had seen no 

 individual blooms equal to the best dozen or 

 so at a first rate London exhibition, but 

 these great plants with their hundreds of 

 flowers were triumphs of horticulture." 



This beautiful and useful flower is of 

 very easy culture, and might be grown in 

 pots in the open air in summer, and removed 

 to a sheltered place (but in the sunlight), 

 such as a porch or bay window as soon as 

 the cold weather comes on, or a home made 

 frame might be easily constructed at a very 

 small cost, with lights for a roof, and one 

 could have very nice plants for the house 

 until very late in the season. 



