Oriental and European History. 1 1 



not but think that, with the combined efforts of the importer 

 and the hybridizer, its varieties will, within the next decade, 

 be augmented many fold. The varieties with soft, feathery 

 growth, over which so much ado has been made within the 

 past few years, have long been common in Japan, for Mr. 

 Fortune tried many years since to bring to England a variety 

 that had its florets edged very beautifully with a hair-like 

 fringe, but it was unfortunately lost on the way. The chrys- 

 anthemums in Japan are not confined to the autumn varieties, 

 for several beautiful summer blooming kinds of large size are 

 to be met with in the gardens of that country. These, how- 

 ever, would never become as popular in our climate as the 

 fall flowering varieties, as the season of blooming has much 

 to do with the popularity of the many varieties we cultivate. 

 What is known as the umbelliferous chrysanthemums have 

 not made much progress among our florists as yet. These 

 varieties are grown in the southern province, Kiushiu, and, 

 though the flowers are small, their branches are very compact, 

 forming a plant a yard in diameter. 



We have been taught that there is no such thing in nature 

 as plants of the same species producing scarlet, yellow and 

 blue flowers. Perhaps the nearest approach to this is the 

 hyacinth, but in this, although we have the yellow and blue, 

 we have no true scarlet. Neither is there any true scarlet 

 among the chrysanthemums, which encourages some credence 

 in the information regarding the existence in Japan of a 

 variety with blue flowers. In the " History of Nin-toku-ten- 

 wan " the following passage occurs : " In 386, in the seventy- 

 third year of his reign, seeds of the chrysanthemum were 

 first introduced into Japan from a foreign country, both blue 

 and yellow, red, white and violet." There are frequently 

 represented on Japanese porcelain, both ancient and modern, 

 especially that of Satsuma and Kioto, chrysanthemum blos- 

 soms in blue or emerald green, to which fact may be attributed 



