THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 37 



a sport will sooner or later revert to the original color, and, as 

 a matter of course, it becomes worthless. 



There is no earthly reason why a new variet}" obtained from 

 a sport is not, to the full, as good as one obtained from seed. 

 Many forms of the incurved class have been procured in this 

 manner. It may be said that the general system of growing 

 Chrysanthemums for the sole production of large blooms is not 

 favorable for increasing the nu.mber of new varieties by sports, 

 on the ground that the plants are denuded of the side shoots as 

 they grow, and it is from these very side shoots, when they are 

 permitted to develop themselves into flowers, that the largest 

 number of sports are obtained. In the Japanese class the fewest 

 sports are found. With scarcely an exception all sports are the 

 counterparts, in foliage and habit, of their parents ; and there 

 cannot be the least doubt that some of them possess better con- 

 stitutions and produce finer flowers than their originals, or that 

 they are, in some respects, improvements upon their parents. 



The Seedling Chrysanthemum is not " like angels' visits, few 

 and far between," but on the contrary, it is the rule and not the 

 exception. Save a comparatively small number of sports, all the 

 varieties of the Chrysanthemum that are in cultivation have 

 been raised from seed at one period or another ; and it is of course 

 only in this manner that really new and distinct kinds are to be 

 obtained. It is regarded as a curious fact that in England, where 

 the growing of the flower is second only to that of China and 

 Japan, for many years past, and until quite recently, few, 

 if indeed any, attempts have been made to raise new seedling 

 plants, although in the early days of its cultivation a number 

 of what were then considered remarkably fine varieties were 

 obtained from seed. Owing to the damp and unfavorable 

 conditions of the English autumns, so much difficulty was experi- 

 enced in ripening the seeds that the attempt was relinquished, 

 and nearly all the novelties displayed in that country were 

 obtained from raisers in Japan and France, with a few from the 

 islands of Jersey and Guernsey ; and the confession is made that 

 In recent years, we Americans have taken up the industry with 

 such great zeal and energy that we have supplied to the mother- 

 country several hundred of more or less fine and valuable intro- 

 ductions with stronger constitutions, thus enabling seed of the 

 Chrysanthemum to be again grown in England. 



