THE CULTIVATION OF PYRETHRUM. 165 



home, and Dr. Eadde's statement is corroborated by a communication 

 of Mr. S. M. Hutton, vice-consul- general of the United States at Mos- 

 cow, Eussia, to whom we applied for seed of this species. He writes 

 that his agents were not able to get more than about half a pound of 

 the seed from any one person. From this statement it maybe inferred 

 that the seeds have to be gathered from the wild and not from the cul- 

 tivated plants. 



As to the Dalmatian plant, it is also said to be cultivated in its native 

 home, but we can get no definite information on this score, owing to the 

 fact that the inhabitants are very unwilling to give any information regard- 

 ing a plant the product of which they wish to monopolize. For similar 

 reasons we have found great difficulty in obtaining even small quantities 

 of the seed of P. cineraricefolium that w.is not baked, or in other ways 

 tampered with, to prevent germination. Indeed, the people are so jeal- 

 ous of their i)lant that to send the seed out of the country becomes a 

 serious matter, in which life is risked. 



Cultivation of Pyeethrum. — The seed of Fyrethrxim roseum is ob- 

 tained with less difficulty, at least in small quantities, and it has even 

 become an article of commerce, several nurserymen here, as well as in 

 Euroi^e, advertising it in their catalogues. The species has been suc- 

 cessfully grown as a garden plant for its pale rose or bright pink flower- 

 rays. Mr. Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, Pa., writes us : *' I have had 

 a plant of Fyrethrum roseum in my herbaceous garden for many years 

 past, and it holds its own without any care much better than many other 

 things. I should say from this experience that it was a plant which will 

 very easily accommodate itself to culture anywhere in the United States." 

 Peter Henderson, of New York, another well-known and experienced 

 nurseryman, writes : '' I have grown the plant and its varieties for ten 

 years. It is of the easiest cultivation, either by seeds or divisions. It, 

 now ramifies into a great variety of all shades, from white to deep crim- 

 son, double and single, perfectly hardy here, and I think likely to be 

 nearly everywhere on tbis continent." Dr. Barnard reports that " in 

 the garden of the Starling plantation, on Lake Chicot, at Sunny Side, 

 Ark., I found Pyrethrum which had been growing perennially for 

 many years. This is toward the northern limit of the cotton belt 

 and, for the river country, the most northern point of serious in- 

 juries from the Cotton Worm. Since the plant does not freeze out there 

 it will certainly withstand the winter throughout the region of se- 

 rious depredation from the worm." Dr. James C. Neal, of Archer, 

 Fla., has also successfully grown Pyrethrum roseum and many varieties 

 thereof, and other correspondents report similar favorable experience. 

 None of them have found any special mode of cultivation necessary. In 

 1856 Mr. C. Willemot made a serious attempt to introduce and cultivate 

 the plant ^° on a large scale in France. As his account of the cultivation 

 of Pyrethrum is the best we know of, we quote here his exi)erience with 

 but few slight omissions : '^ The soil best adapted to its culture should be 



