CHAPTER II. 



American History. 



riUS far we have hurriedly glanced at the early his- 

 tory of the chrysanthemum in the far east, in Eng- 

 land, in France and the Channel Islands, and now 

 the author comes home to our own chrysanthemums, 

 with all their profusion of beauty. Their size, form, and 

 color are probably unequalled in their original home in the far 

 east. They are so refined by crossing, and strengthened by 

 climate and culture, that their superiority has been univer- 

 sally acknowledged. Never before during its history has the 

 cultivator been able to produce anything as fine as the blooms 

 that are now raised beneath American skies and shown in 

 the exhibition halls of our large cities. 



The climate of the northern states is more conducive to the 

 growth of individual plants under the care of the diligent cul- 

 tivator. More care has to be exercised through the long dry 

 summers of the south to produce fine specimens, but as an 

 out-door flower, adapted to the gardens of all, one must go to 

 the southern states to see them in their wild and promiscuous 

 beauty. 



It must have been long after the landing of the Pilgrim 

 fathers that the chrysanthemum reached our shores, after a 

 checkered voyage from the far east, probably about the year 



(31) 



