CHAPTER XIII 



Raising from Seed and Hybridizing* 



SEED RAISING 



In the early days of Chrysanthemum development 

 in the United States results were forthcoming which 

 gave us many splendid varieties introduced by American 

 growers. Of late years, seedling Chryanthemum pro- 

 duction in our country has not brought forth anything 

 like the number of varieties annually produced prior 

 to 1896 and 1897. The falling off in the number of 

 American novelties may be attributed to several causes ; 

 one of these is the rejection of nearly all the varieties 

 failing to meet the trade requirements laid down by the 

 wholesale cut flower commission men. They claimed that 

 a variety must have a rounded compact form, one that 

 could be shipped easily without bruising; in addition 

 to this it must be self-colored, either distinctively 

 white, yellow, red, or a near approach to pink; it must 

 possess foliage right up to the flower on stiff stems; 

 so arbitrary was the enforcement of this rule that a 

 new variety not possessing these particular qualities 

 was condemned and cast aside as worthless; there was 

 no place for the fine, graceful, recurving Japanese type, 

 and what few varieties of these were grown had a hard 

 time to hold in line, and were simply tolerated. 



This unwritten rule practically excluded all new 

 sorts which were of the variable colored order, such as 

 bronze, lavender, and any intermediate shadings, and 

 narrowed the field down to so few varieties that many 



*By E. G. Hill, Richmond, Ind. 



