i8 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



day, approved of the decision, and in his Properties of 

 Flowers and Plants, will be found an enumeration of the 

 points a show Chrysanthemum should possess. 



But this hard and fast regulation was destined in the 

 course of time to undergo some modification. To-day the 

 old florists' standard can hardly be said to have much weight 

 with the general public, and indeed is only accepted by a 

 few of the growers who make a speciality of that section. 



The Japanese Chrysanthemum is par excellence the 

 exhibition flower of the day, indeed, it has enjoyed that 

 distinction almost from its first introduction to Britain. 

 We say almost, because when the type was first intro- 

 duced, cultivators were so wedded to the idea of perfection 

 as exemplified by the Incurved, that they regarded the 

 more modern form as violating all the canons of propriety, 

 and they treated the new-comer accordingly. 



It is not possible here to trace the progress of the show 

 Chrysanthemum during the latter half of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury; in the sixties and seventies particularly, the Exhibi- 

 tions were very numerous all over the kingdom, and the 

 flower may be said to have attained the heyday of its 

 popularity, when an event of some importance caused a 

 considerable decline, namely, the death of Mr. John Salter. 



Mr. John Salter's nursery at Hammersmith was a great 

 centre of attraction. Here every autumn were shown the 

 novelties of the season, for besides his own seedlings, 

 Mr. Salter had remained in correspondence with many of 

 the French growers, whose acquaintance he had made 

 during his sojourn in France, and to his own were added 

 the novelties he thus obtained from the other side of the 

 Channel. 



In 1859, when announcing that this collection was 



