Ddcember 28, 1916. 



The Florists' Review 



13 



midseason sort and Patty is a good late 

 one. 



In yellow, my selection would be 

 Chrysolora, Marigold and Yellow Turner. 

 There has been some argument about 

 Chrysolora not keeping well this fall. 

 I think in many cases it was the grow- 

 er 's fault, in not soaking it well enough 

 before shipping. Marigold is not so easy 

 n doer as Chrysolora, but when it makes 

 a flower such as it did with us this 

 year, it is marvelous and a variety that 

 must be considered. Yellow Turner is 

 a, shade pale in color, but that did not 

 prevent its bringing a splendid price this 

 year. Yellow Chadwick also is grown 

 as a late commercial variety with good 

 success, and could be recommended if 

 E. B. has call for varieties coming later 

 than Yellow Turner. Chas. H. Totty. 



BLACK FLY ON MUMS. 



This season I have been troubled a 

 great deal with black aphis on my 

 chrysanthemums. I used No. 40 Black 

 Leaf and burned some of my Seidewitz 

 plants, which seemed to be easily in- 

 jured. Can they be sprayed with this 

 preparation when in bud or flower? I 

 am anxious to discover the best way of 

 ridding the mums of this pest. 



E. B.— Pa. 



We have for years been convinced that 

 the best means of exterminating black 

 aphis is fumigation with tobacco dust, 

 burned in the house. A little experi- 

 menting by E. B. will show him the 

 right quantity to use. We are never 

 troubled with burning of the foliage, 

 as is so often the case when the nicotine 

 solutions are used for spraying. It is 

 occasionally necessary to spray with 

 nicotine solutions when red spider is 

 present and is injuring the flowers, but 

 aside from that I would always suggest 

 fumigating with tobacco dust in pref- 

 erence to any other method of cleaning 

 out the black fly. Chas. H. Totty. 



EVOLUTION OF FLOEISTS' MUMS. 



In referring to the modern develop- 

 ment of the florists' favorite type of 

 chrysanthemums — development from 

 the tiny wild flowers to the big Wil- 

 liam Turners — "evolution" is a suffi- 

 ciently applicable word, is it nott Of 

 course, the hand of man has aided 

 greatly in the development of the flow- 

 ers, and the process of evolution has 

 therefore been much swifter than in 

 cases where Nature has been allowed to 

 do the work withoujt any human inter- 

 vention. Nature and man together have 

 done for the chrysanthemum in a few 

 decades what Nature alone might not 

 have done in centuries or ages. Never- 

 theless, the improvement of the flowers 

 has been a genuine process of evolving 

 or unfolding — unfolding the latent pos- 

 sibilities that resided in the wild plants. 

 The speed of evolution, and of any 

 other good undertaking, is always ac- 

 celerated when man learns to cooperate 

 with the forces of Nature, instead of 

 opposing them. 



In the florists' business especially, if 

 ■we antagonize Nature, she will run her 

 steam roller straight over us. If we 

 approach her in a friendly and appre- 

 ciative manner, she will invite us to 

 climb up and ride on the roller with 

 her. 



As to that fundamental principle of 

 evolution, the survival of the fittest, 

 the big William Turner mums in the 

 front part of the accompanying pic- 



Chrysanthemum Indicum and the Later Day Members of its Family. 



ture appear to be the fittest in some 

 respects at least, for they have survived 

 for several years, in spite of strong 

 competition. But man's preferences 

 are even more fickle than Nature's, and 

 Turner may be dethroned at any time. 

 And the little Chrysanthemum Indi- 

 cum, shown in the illustration as "the 

 original plant," evidently possesses 

 some fitness too, since it also survives, 

 has survived for ages and may still sur- 

 vive when Turner has vanished like a 

 ghost. 



The immense bush chrysanthemums 

 exhibited by John Canning, of Ardsley, 

 N. Y., at the fall show of the Horti- 

 cultural Society of New York, were ac- 

 knowledged to be the chief attraction. 

 But it is reasonably certain that the 

 group of mums which is shown in the 

 illustration, and which also was staged 

 by Mr. Canning, received a large share 

 of attention, especially from the most 

 intelligent and thoughtful of the spec- 

 tators. Such an exhibit is an object 

 lesson that can scarcely be ignored or 

 entirely misunderstood by the passing 

 throngs. 



In labeling Chrysantheinuni Indicum 

 as "the original plant" in the evolu- 

 tion of the big greenhouse mums, the 

 exhibitor probalaly was accurate enough 

 for all practical purposes. Botanists 

 assert that the florists' mums are de- 

 scended from two sources. Chrysanthe- 

 mum Indicum and C. morifolium, also 

 known as C. Sincnse, both of which 

 species of plants grow wild in China 

 and Japan. The two species, however, 

 are much alike, and C. Indicum is some- 

 times supposed to include C. morifolium. 

 The word "Indicum," by the way, 

 seems to be a misnomer, as the plant 

 did not come from India. 



After being cultivated in their native 

 climates for hundreds, perhaps thou- 

 sands, of years, the "original plants" 

 were introduced to England in the sec- 



ond half of the eighteenth century. 

 The first seedlings were raised in 

 France and England about 1830 and 

 some of the plants were brought to 

 America about the same time. Forty 

 or fifty years later began the great 

 work of hybridization, carried on by 

 H. P. Walcott, Wm. K. Harris, John 

 Thorpe and their successors. In 1863 

 the late Peter Henderson imported the 

 first improved varieties brought direct- 

 ly from Japan. 



PANSIES FOE MEMORIAL. 



When should pansy seeds be sown to 

 have plants in bloom Memorial day? 



W. V. R.— Minn. 



July and August would have been the 

 best time to sow pansies for May flower- 

 ing. If you sow at once, however, you 

 can get some flowers at the time named. 

 C. W. 



BEGONIA LEAVES BROWN. 



I am enclosing some leaves of a Cin- 

 cinnati begonia. Can you advise me 

 what the trouble is? The flowers are 

 perfect, the plants well grown, but some 

 of the leaves are imperfect. 



A. C. S.— Wis. 



The brown foliage may be due either 

 to too much water at the roots, exces- 

 sive feeding or too much water on the 

 foliage. Such plants occasionally will 

 appear in the best growers' establish- 

 ments. Give the plants an airy, sunny 

 house and a temperature of 50 to 55 de- 

 grees at night. Do not spray the plants 

 and discontinue feeding once the flowers 

 start to open. C. W. 



Decatur, 111.— Henry Gcrstenkorn com- 

 ments on the rapid increase in the land- 

 scape business in this section, the foot- 

 ings in that department of his estab- 

 lishment showing fifty per cent gain as 

 compared with last year. 



