HISTORY OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 151 



them. In 1808 their cultivation had increased to some 

 nine or ten varieties, and it went on increasing, many 

 varieties being collected for the Royal Horticultural 

 Society in China and Bengal in 1821 by Mr. Parks. 

 At the end of 1825 the number of varieties seems to 

 have been increased to forty-eight, and in 1826 Sabine 

 writes most cheerily concerning their rapid progress, 

 and of an astounding large exhibition of them being 

 held in t^e society's garden at Chiswick, in which were 

 shown over 700 plants in pots. 



ORIGIN OF THE POMPONS 



In 1845 the late Mr. Robert Fortune, who was se'nt 

 to China in 1842 by the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 brought home with him from Chusan (an island on the 

 east coast of China) a semi-double, reddish or light 

 brown, small Chrysanthemum, which was called the 

 Chusan Daisy. The Horticultural Society propagated it, 

 and sent it out among its members. From some of these 

 members it was sent to M. Lebois, a perfect enthusiast 

 in Chrysanthemum growing, in Paris. He seeded it, 

 the autumns of France being more favorable to that 

 operation than the cold, foggy ones of England, and 

 from this seed he raised a great many good varieties, 

 which came into the hands of Mr. S alter, late of the 

 Versailles Xurseries, Hammersmith, who, in his day, 

 did more to popularize Chrysanthemums in England 

 than any other man. This is the generally received 

 history of the Pompon varieties of Chrysanthemum, 

 though the names given to them as far back as 1821 

 and 1825, Park's Small Yellow, Blush Ranunculus, 

 etc., for instance, show that there were small varieties 

 grown then; indeed, in the Horticultural Society's 

 Transactions for February, 1821, there are colored 

 plates of small, many-petaled varieties, but they were 



