VI 

 THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 



It fills with joy the floral breach 



Twixt waning summer and welcome spring. 



THE Chrysanthemum is generally supposed to have 

 originated in Japan, but floral historians tell us that 

 this is not so, as it was known in China, in a more 

 or less cultivated form, hundreds of years before 

 the Japanese imported it from there. 



So far as the available records go it would appear 

 that the earliest reference to the popular winter 

 flower is to be found in the works of the great 

 Chinese philosopher Confucius, who lived about 500 

 B.C. In his work called the " Li-Ki " (Ninth Moon) 

 he says, " The Chrysanthemum has its yellow glory," 

 and in subsequent years other Chinese writers have 

 alluded to it in terms which justify our assuming 

 that the flower was the object of considerable atten- 

 tion in theCelestial Empire when we Western people 

 had not yet emerged from a semi-barbaric state. 



78 



