76 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have been the cause of his ill success, but this theory was upset by 

 the faihire of tliose who watered. At all other times his plants 

 have (lone well. 



The chrysanthemum seems to come into bloom at a time when 

 there is nothing else ; other plants are then making their growth. 

 Its increased popularity is shown by the displays in the florists' 

 windows. There is no flower from which people can get more 

 satisfaction when used for house decoration. But they are fre- 

 quenth- put into too warm places, and then, having been previously 

 kept in cool greenhouses, they will not last more than a week. If 

 kept in cool rooms in simny positions thej- will last six weeks. 

 We have hardly commenced the cultivation of the chrysanthemum 

 here, as compared with Europe. But the premiums for this flower 

 at our next exhibition have been nearly doubled, and the speaker 

 predicted that its cultivation and exhibition would largely increase. 



Edward L. Beard enforced the practical suggestion of the 

 essayist that healthy cuttings cannot be had from plants cut down 

 at once. Many persons are in the habit of cutting down their 

 plants as soon as they have bloomed. Bottom heat is used only 

 b\' Dr. Walcott ; wlio takes oft" cuttings and plunges them, after 

 some weeks' growth, into a hot- bed where root action is stimulated 

 by artificiiil heat, and allows his plants to get two feet high before 

 planting them in the gioniid. The speaker thought the hardier 

 treatment the more natiu-al and reasonable one. He doubted 

 whether the chrysanthemum could be made a good house plant; 

 our rooms are kept too warm and the plants become bare or in- 

 fested with insects. He built a temporary greenhonse five feet 

 high at the back and two feet in front, so constiucted that it could 

 be taken apart, which holds about fifty j)lant8. They lose their 

 leaves owing to the dampness, and thougli they would doubtless 

 do better with a little heat he had flowers until the fifteenth of 

 December, when the thermometer fell to 10° — Antonius was per- 

 fectly hardy even then. He could cut a bushel of flowers, and he 

 recommended the plan to amateurs. Artificial fertilization is in- 

 dispensable to the development of chrysanthemum flowers in the 

 fall. People complain thai the chrysantheuuim ceases to be val- 

 uable after the twentieth of December. He suggested cutting off 

 tlie plants in lute spring and growing them on, when they would 

 bloom until February. 



The si)eaker had noticed in Dr. Walcott's collection a seedling 



