34 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETT. 



Lacroix, Lad}'' Selborne, P. van Geert, etc. The first named, with 

 its sports, G. Wermiz (primrose) and Mrs. Hawkins (deep gold), 

 form a beautiful and most useful group, admirably adapted alike 

 for indoor decoration and for culture in the open air ; and a great 

 future is in store for this most excellent and attractive group. 



Having thus briefly, and much to my regret imperfectly, 

 sketched the history and peculiarities of this most charming 

 flower, let us take a glance at the methods of its cultivation. 



Mr. Edwin ^Molyneux, gardener to W. H. Myers, Esq., of 

 Swanmore Park, Bishop's AValthara, England, may be looked 

 upon as an expert in all that appertains to the Chrysanthemum, 

 and he " regards a favorable start as being necessar}' to a success- 

 ful finish. The foundation must be thoroughl}^ laid to insure 

 that success Avhich all should strive to attain who engage in the 

 cultivation of this flower.'" Mr. Molyneux speaks e.r catliedra, 

 for during a period of six years he won eight^^-six prizes, and 

 of these no less than seventy-four were firsts. Moreover, these 

 prizes were won in competition with the best growers of the day 

 at the leading shows in the south of England ; and the Swanmore 

 blooms were placed first during four consecutive years in the 

 great cup class at Kingston-on-Thames — a feat unparalleled in 

 the annals of Chrysanthemum showing, and never approached 

 since. Mr. Molyneux deserved to be crowned King of Chrj^san- 

 themum growers and exhibitors. 



And here allow me to suggest a fact with which no doubt you 

 are all quite familiar, that within a radius of ninety miles of 

 Boston the Chrysanthemum is grown to a perfection nowhere 

 excelled in this or any other countr3^ 



The cultivation of the Chrysanthemum for blooms for the 

 market and single specimens for exhibition is attended witli 

 much more care and labor than any other branch of the Chrys- 

 anthemum raising industry ; and the fact remains that the culture 

 of the flower, for exhibition alone, has now been elevated to the 

 dignity of a fine art, or rather to that of an almost exact science, 

 and those who desire to win in the future must do not only all 

 that men who have made the subject a special study of a large 

 part of a lifetime have done in the past, and can do at the pres- 

 ent time, but a little mpre than that, and, if among the possibil- 

 ities, much better, also. 



Growinor for exhibitions is a most arduous task — the most 



