ON THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 85 



veloped even in our own time, prompts us to speculate 

 on their origin. We feel that the history of so great a 

 flower must have much that is remarkable about it. But 

 when we begin to probe into the heart of Chrysanthemum 

 history we run against the stony obstacles of Oriental 

 secrecy and passivity. The trail meanders away into 

 the dust-tracks of past centuries tracks sprinkled plenti- 

 fully with boulders. We even read of references to the 

 plant in the pages of Confucius, the immortal sage of 

 China, whose memory still receives the homage of the 

 Manchu emperors ; and Confucius was born as far back 

 as 551 B.C. Who can follow the progress of a plant 

 which was grown for hundreds of years before it reached 

 Europe grown, too, in the Far East? The task is 

 clearly impossible. We know that our modern Chrys- 

 anthemums (" florists' " Chrysanthemums, not the com- 

 paratively unimportant annual varieties of the summer 

 garden) are the offspring of two species, indicum and 

 sinense y both of which came from China, and had single 

 flowers, the former yellow in colour, the latter variable. 

 Those who are sufficiently interested to want to know 

 what the early blooms were like may turn to the Botanical 

 Magazine, that great picture gallery of plants, where 

 t.t. 327, 2042, and 2556 portray the two parent species. 



It is common to indulge in playful badinage at the 

 expense of the Celestial, but it would be somewhat 

 dangerous in the case of the Chrysanthemums, for our 

 own botanists seem to be undecided about the respec- 

 tive parts played by Chrysanthemums indicum and 

 sinense in fathering modern varieties. One boldly attri- 

 butes all of them to C. indicum. Another as roundly 

 declares that C. sinense is the parent. In these circum- 

 stances it behoves us to preserve a prudent silence, and 

 reserve our gibes for a subject on which repartee would 



