CHAPTER XX 



History of the Chrysanthemum 



The early history of the Chrysanthemum collected 

 and combed by Professor F. W. Burhidge of Dublin, 

 is recognized as the most concise and correct treatise 

 on the subject known. From this work the following 

 is condensed: 



Of all flowers, that which has been said to repre- 

 sent "cheerfulness under adversity'* the Chrysanthe- 

 mum, or "Golden Flower" of the Greek may fairly 

 be called the "Queen of Autumn/' Six varieties 

 were described by Breynius as being cultivated in 

 Holland two centuries ago. Originally introduced to 

 England from the Celestial Empire in 1754, it seems 

 first to have been cultivated by that celebrated gardener, 

 Miller of Chelsea, but was soon afterward lost by some 

 unfortunate accident. Again introduced, this time by 

 way of Marseilles in 1789, it reached London in 1795, 

 and in.Curtis's "Botanical Magazine" for 1796 we find 

 a colored figure of Chrysanthemum Sinense (there de- 

 scribed under the name C. Indicum), the result of the 

 second advent. Phillips, in his "Flora Historica," pub- 

 lished in 1824, tells us that the new plant was sold at 

 a high price soon after its introduction, but it was not 

 until the beginning of the nineteenth century that it 

 attracted attention as a florist's flower. "Then," says 

 he, ff like the Roses of China, Chrysanthemums soon 

 escaped from the conservatories of the curious, and as 

 rapidly spread themselves over every part of the island, 

 filling the windows of the cottagers and the parterres 



