20 POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



the taller, looser sorts like the Novae-Angliae and Novi- 

 Belgii varieties. 



China Asters. Suburban and country gardeners alike 

 will grow China Asters, which, being annuals, grow from 

 seed in spring and die in autumn. Like the worker bees, 

 they have a few months of bright, bustling life, and then 

 depart into the shades. They are adorable little plants, 

 and have a time-hallowed association with ten-week 

 Stocks ; indeed, one might speak of the two in com- 

 mercial language as " Messrs. Stocks and Asters, speci- 

 alists in garden decoration, established over one hundred 

 years." 



The original China Aster came over in 1731. Bot- 

 anists called it Callistephus chinensis. The first name 

 means "beautiful crown," the second indicates the 

 habitat. Whence the popular name of Aster ? It is 

 probably derived from aster, a star, in allusion to the 

 somewhat stellate form of the flowers. (Remember that 

 the original was single, not double.) Be this so or not, 

 the name Aster was given, and it stuck. It is as Asters 

 that we know the Callistephuses to-day, and it is as 

 Asters that our descendants will grow them a thousand 

 years hence. 



The original Aster had mauve flowers, and the flower- 

 lover who is sufficiently interested may get seed of it 

 from a few of the larger seedsmen, under the name 

 of Callistephus sinensis. It is a really pretty thing, worth 

 growing for its own sake, as well as for the interest 

 which springs out of a comparison between the earliest 

 and the latest forms. Such a comparison pays a re- 

 markable tribute to the skill of the florist, who has not 

 only developed fresh colours, but also new forms. The 

 unversed amateur who opens a seedsman's catalogue 

 with the view of finding the cost of a packet of Aster 



