CHAPTER XIX 



Classification and Selection of Varieties for Special 

 Purposes - 



Many years of cultivation and the subsequent de- 

 velopment of divergent types, with variations so marked 

 and, in some cases, so peculiar as to make it difficult of 

 belief that all had their origin in single-flowered, daisy- 

 like ancestors, have led to the necessity for, and the 

 adoption of, certain methods of classification. The 

 basis of such classification has been to gather together 

 in groups, or classes, varieties having more or less of 

 resemblance in form or type of flower. The manner 

 in which these divergent forms sprang up and gave 

 birth, as it were, to the varying types that now charac- 

 terize the present day Chrysanthemum, is thus described 

 by that eminent botanist, the Rev. G. Henslow: 



"The transformations in the corolla are brought 

 about by the two principles of hypertrophy and atrophy, 

 both conspiring to effect the remarkable changes. Thus 

 while the corolla enlarges, to change from a five-toothed 

 minute disc-floret into a broad, flat-petaled ray-floret, 

 two petals are gradually dwarfed and finally disappear, 

 while a corresponding atrophy takes place in the essen- 

 tial organs, for the stamens are totally arrested and 

 the pistil changes its form the style-arms becoming 

 much reduced in size. The tubular condition of the 

 corolla may remain while the tube itself elongates 

 without any, or much, splitting; hence the quilled or 

 tasseled forms are arrived at, both representing a more 

 or less arrested stage in the process of change into 



