j6 Chrysanthemum Culture for America. 



mum, and adopts the pseudonym of "Jerry Blossoms." The 

 writer also stated that there was little chance for its ripening 

 seed, as it bloomed at the commencement of winter. Mr. 

 Sabine was also of the same opinion, and up to this time no 

 chrysanthemums had been produced from seed in England. 

 We are told by Mr. Burbidge, in his very excellent work 

 upon chrysanthemums, that about that year Isaac Wheeler, 

 gardener and porter of Magdalen Hall, now Hertford College, 

 Oxford, raised the first English seedlings; and on December 

 2d, 1832, Mr. Wheeler exhibited some of his seedlings in 

 London, and received a silver Banksian medal for them as the 

 earliest chrysanthemums raised in England. They were in- 

 significant blooms compared with those of the present day, 

 and were referred to only as a curiosity. In 1835 some seed- 

 lings were raised in Norfolk, which Mr. Salter claims were 

 the first ever produced in England. These were grown by 

 Mr. Short and Mr. Freestone. The latter was the more suc- 

 cessful grower, as some varieties raised at that time exist to 

 the present day. 



It is a noteworthy fact, in connection with the chrysanthe- 

 mum, that the interest in the flower has never been allowed to 

 abate. At several periods of its existence some unexpected 

 development, or departure from the ordinary course, has given 

 new impetus to its cultivation, and excited the curiosity and 

 admiration of its growers, when it might have otherwise 

 ceased to retain its hold upon their affections. In the year 

 1846 an instance of this occurred in England, when the small- 

 flowered species known as pompon was introduced. In 1843 

 the Horticultural Society of London sent Robert Fortune, 

 the superintendent of the glass department of their garden, 

 to China, and, on his return in 1846, he brought home, with 

 other curiosities, two small-flowered varieties, known asChusan 

 Daisy. These were at once introduced into the Versailles nur- 

 sery and soon became favorites with the French, their seed- 



