INTRODUCTION TO EUROPE 7 



as growing both wild and in the gardens of Japan. In 

 1750 Rumphius published the Herbarium Amboinense, and 

 in this work the small-flowered variety is called Matri- 

 caria sinensis. Many other old botanical writers, such as 

 Plukenet, Thunberg, Loureiro, Willdenow, Mcench, Vail- 

 lant, and Persoon, figured and described under various 

 names the flower now known as Chrysanthemum. 



Authors are more or less divided on the question as 

 to the date of the introduction of the Chrysanthemum into 

 Europe, but it may be taken as certain that up to the year 

 1764 there is no record of its existence in English gardens. 

 Breynius, in his Prodromus Plantarum Rariorum, states that 

 it was growing in Holland at the time he wrote, but, if so, 

 it soon disappeared, and was unknown to the Dutch at the 

 time some writers speak of its reintroduction. 



On the authority of the Hortus Kewensis the first known 

 plant in England of the Chrysanthemum, which bore a 

 small yellow flower, was growing in 1764 in the Apothe- 

 caries' Botanic Garden at Chelsea. A dried specimen of 

 this plant is still in existence, and a description of it was 

 given by Philip Miller, gardener to the Apothecaries 

 Society, in his Gardeners Dictionary (8th edition). But 

 the specimen and description unfortunately do not agree, 

 and the plant was so little esteemed that it was soon lost 

 altogether. 



For a quarter of a century afterwards we hear no 

 more of the Chrysanthemum either in England or on the 

 Continent. And on this ground we claim for Pierre Louis 

 Blancard, of Marseilles, the credit of being instrumental 

 in bringing about the uninterrupted cultivation of the 

 large -flowering Chrysanthemum, our present-day show 

 flower. 



