XVI 



ON FEVERFEWS (PYRETHRUMS) 



THERE is so vast a difference between the little Golden 

 Feather of our garden beds and the huge Japanese 

 Chrysanthemums which grace the boards at autumn 

 exhibitions, that the average gardener lacks sufficient 

 imagination to bridge the gap between. They stand 

 on different planes. But we saw in our chapter on 

 Chrysanthemums that the Chrysanthemums and Pyre- 

 thrums are related. 



In the " bedding out" days the Golden Feather was 

 the most important of the Feverfews, but now that 

 herbaceous plants reign, the single and double-flowered 

 varieties of Pyrethrum roseum stand in front of it. The 

 common name came from the supposed virtues of the 

 plant as a febrifuge, and the botanical one (pronounced 

 Pie-ree'-thrum) from/^r, fire ; in allusion to the acridity 

 of the roots. 



The great botanists Bentham and Hooker linked 

 Pyrethrum with Chrysanthemum, and if their decision 

 had been accepted by gardeners, the name Pyrethrum 

 would have dropped out ; but it became naturalised as 

 it were. It had taken out its papers, sworn the oath 

 of allegiance, and been accepted as sound British stuff. 

 Pyrethrum has become, with Begonia, Gardenia, Ste- 

 phanotis, and others, as familiar as the Anglo-Saxon 



names, and it could not be uprooted. 



163 



