90 Chrysanthemum Culture for America. 



tongs, and snip and contort them with tweezers, as well as to 

 insert foreign petals that deprive them of all their grace and 

 beauty ! 



'There is an instance on record where an enterprising com- 

 petitor, by a cunning trick, secured for several years the 

 premium for the finest cut flowers at the Liverpool Chrysan- 

 themum Show. The blooms of the Chinese varieties were most 

 shown in those days ; they were exhibited on a light wooden 

 bench sloping to the front like a writing desk, with numerous 

 holes in its top through which the stem was passed to the inside, 

 where a zinc tube was usually fixed which contained water to 

 receive the end of the stem. By this means the blooms, in 

 many cases, especially the flat spreading sorts, were drawn 

 tightly down on the board, or exhibition stands, as they were 

 called. This mode of exhibition afforded ample facilities for 

 the would-be prize winner, so that in performing the opera- 

 tion of "dressing" his blooms he brought his cunning into 

 play. With the aid of tweezers and glue pot, several blooms 

 were used to make one, by taking the finest petals from 

 choice flowers, thus greatly augmenting the size of the exhibi- 

 tion bloams that he was so long famous for growing(?). So 

 dexterously did he unite the parts that he succeeded in baffling 

 both his competitors and the judges for years. The exhibitor 

 who could successfully employ such a device at one of our 

 exhibitions, where the blooms are exhibited in vases or tall 

 glasses, would indeed be a genius ! 



The schedules of shows should be drawn up by people of 

 refined tastes. Beauty of petal, form and color, are more to 

 be sought than monstrosities that rival in form the Globe arti- 

 chokes. Prizes might also be offered for single chrysanthe- 

 mums. Intending exhibitors should be careful that they thor- 

 oughly understand the meaning of the schedules or regulations 

 of the society offering prizes. If the slightest doubt is felt, 

 a clear idea of what is meant should be obtained from the 



