THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 83 



the frost cuts off all these, and indeed every 

 beautiful thing that still lingers in the garden, 

 robbing us in one night of all flowers and even 

 stripping the bronze and golden garments off our 

 deciduous trees, the early, middle, and late winter 

 varieties carry us, with a little care and slight pro- 

 tection, over a time when, but for them, we should 

 be almost flowerless. 



The Chrysanthemum not only thrives under our 

 best English climatic conditions, but it defies our 

 worst, which is saying something. 



It is one of the few winter flowers that can be 

 successfully grown in the very heart of great and 

 smoky cities ; and speaking of this reminds me of 

 the Chrysanthemum League shows which were 

 held at the Royal Horticultural Hall a few years 

 ago. These shows were instituted with the object 

 of encouraging the love of flowers in the children 

 of London's poorest quarters and slums. 



The proprietors of the Evening News, under 

 whose auspices they were held, appointed me one of 

 the judges, and when I saw the little ones arriving 

 with the plants, which had been distributed to them 

 without charge in the spring, I was amazed at the 

 clean and healthy condition of the majority of them ; 

 some of the poor little fellows had grown them in 



