viii PREFACE 



assured me, and before the Imperial Show was instituted, 

 Japan held its well-ordered Chrysanthemum Shows ; as 

 2000 years ago, exactly, the great Chinese Encyclopaedia 

 was commenced, and is still continued yearly under the 

 management of a State Committee which was first created 

 2000 years ago. What a very modern Nation we English 

 people are. 



The Chrysanthemum : par excellence " the peoples' 

 flower" the flower of all of us, from palace to cottage, 

 and to workshop ; dearly loved, and well cultivated too, by 

 our East End workers, as they demonstrate to us each 

 year at their " Peoples' Palace " Chrysanthemum Shows. 



And there have, in the long years of its existence, been 

 vast changes both in the character and the uses of this 

 flower ; and how greatly the conditions of competitive 

 exhibitions have been altered ! A generation ago, when 

 the really good new varieties came to us yearly in a bare 

 half dozen, it was of paramount necessity, if one could 

 hope to conquer at the Exhibitions, to search into the 

 inmost character of each new arrival, and by understanding 

 it to win our laurels. Now, with the yearly arrival of 

 literally hundreds of really good new varieties the basis 

 of success has somewhat changed, and the " power of 

 the purse " to acquire these new varieties has received 

 an added potence. Still the necessity for skilful cultivation 

 yet fortunately remains for us. 



And there have succeeded to each other vast changes 

 in the popular taste for this or that section of the flower. 

 The ever -widening understanding of the varied uses of 

 the Chrysanthemum has led to the inevitable result that 

 the popular appreciation of the flower in its decorative 

 aspect has in a measure dwarfed the other aspect that 



