88 POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



Asters. A flower is spoken of as quilled when the petals 

 or florets are rolled or tubular, like the stem of a quill 

 pen. The petals of many of our modern incurved and 

 Japanese Chrysanthemums are quilled. Loudon might 

 have had the former in mind, although there is no record 

 of it till 1836. The term " tasselled " would fit the early 

 forms of what we now call Japanese flowers, but this 

 section was not introduced till 1860-1862. 



Whatever the shapes, British raisers made haste to 

 cross them, and so get a large number of new and im- 

 proved varieties. They perceived immense possibilities 

 in a plant which grew strongly and bloomed freely in 

 autumn, when flowers were scarce. It is quite likely, 

 however, that even the most far-seeing of them never 

 foresaw the marvellous results of their work. They did 

 not see huge halls full of brilliant flowers, nor conserva- 

 tories in the public parks through which thousands of 

 people passed daily to admire the beautiful forms and 

 glowing colours. They did not picture groups of Chry- 

 santhemums in almost every garden, a great market 

 industry in the flower, and scores of societies specially 

 devoted to the plant. 



By 1826 the Horticultural Society had forty-eight 

 varieties, and three years later (although, according to 

 some writers, it was seventeen years later) the first show 

 was held in that grand old city, Norwich, whose gardeners 

 are to this day as active, enterprising, and skilful a body 

 as their craft can show anywhere. London claims to 

 have followed. A Chrysanthemum Society was founded 

 in Stoke Newington, and a show was held in 1847, which 

 was not only to become an annual fixture, but was fated 

 to start a host of others ; for the Stoke Newington 

 Chrysanthemum Society became, in course of time, the 

 National Chrysanthemum Society, and the flower which 



