THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 75 



tint and shade, both pure and combined, within the range 

 of yellows, reds, and pure white. 



The chrysanthemum should be grown at cottage homes 

 as well as in conservatories and greenhouses. Here and 

 there one sees windows bright with the bloom of home-grown 

 chrysanthemums, when November skies are cold and dull. 

 It is quite possible for children to meet success in its culture. 

 Before school gardens were adopted in America, this plant 

 was grown by children at the Eliot School, in Natick, Massa- 

 chusetts. One June, every child from six to sixteen was given 

 an eight-inch pot, a little chrysanthemum in a three-inch pot, 

 and a sheet of directions for its culture, through the gener- 

 osity of gardeners on near estates. In November an exhibi- 

 tion was held in the school hall, which not only paid all ex- 

 penses for pots, prizes, and the like, but yielded a generous 

 balance for decorating the school-rooms. While various ac- 

 cidents had destroyed some plants, there were many that 

 deserved exhibition, and expert gardeners from Boston were 

 delighted by the single blooms and the specimen plants 

 grown by some children. The magnificent plants sent in by 

 the neighboring estates made the exhibition worthy the pat- 

 ronage it received and a real education in horticultural art. 

 While this plan worked successfully for a series of years in 

 this country village, it is evident that it is well adapted to 

 city conditions, where so many children can have no other 

 garden than a potted plant. 



Some of the Pompon Chrysanthemums are hardy and 

 should be grown in every garden of perennials. When other 

 flowers are cut down by frost these bloom cheerily on amid 

 the early snows of November. Since the chrysanthemum is 

 readily grown from cuttings, and because it produces many 



