CHRYSANTHEMUMS 289 
= disk are tubular with four or five teeth at the mouth, and bisexual. The 
_ pappus is reduced to a membranous ring or absent altogether. The 
species are natives of Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. 
There are three species of Chrysanthemum indigenous 
to Britain, though one of these, C. Partheniwm, the Fever- 
few, is by some regarded as merely a naturalised alien. The others are 
C. segetum, the Corn Marigold, a beautiful pest of cornfields that is 
sometimes admitted into gardens; and C. Leucanthemwm, the Ox-eye 
Daisy of meadows and hayfields on poor soils. Of the cultivated species, 
C. coronarium, the Garland Daisy, from the Mediterranean region, was 
the first to be introduced, so far back as 1629. C. frutescens, the 
Marguerite or Paris Daisy, was introduced from the Canaries seventy 
years later, and its extensive cultivation, especially in recent years, has 
resulted in many varieties. C. carinatum, the Tricolor Daisy, a very 
useful annual, came from North Africa in 1796; and a few years 
previously C. sinense, the important autumn- flowering Chrysanthemum 
proper, was introduced from China. The precise date is uncertain,—some 
authorities make it as early as 1764, others 1789 or 1790. Gardening 
works of the last century, however, do not notice it. The type is a small 
yellow-flowered plant of straggling habit, and has only been found truly 
wild in China. But the Chrysanthemum had been long cultivated by 
Chinese and Japanese gardeners before it was introduced into Europe, 
and many of the best varieties grown here are of Japanese or Chinese 
origin. In Japan the Chrysanthemum occupies the same position as a 
national flower as the Rose does with us. Nothing in horticulture is 
more remarkable as an example of how greatly a plant may be made to 
vary by cultivation and selection than the Chrysanthemum, the difference 
between the prototype and the thousands of varieties evolved from it 
being without parallel. The potentialities of the flower were unsuspected 
until about 1826, when Captain Bernet, of Toulouse, an amateur gardener, 
raised seedlings. The result was, he got varieties which showed the plant 
was worthy of the serious attention of horticulturists. About this date 
the var. Jndicwm was introduced from China, and also grown from seeds. 
The progeny of these two races were then crossed, and gave rise to many 
more varieties. Hemsley says this introduction of Indicum took place 
about 1835, but Loudon includes it as a species in his Hortus Britannicus 
(1830), and gives a list of forty-four garden varieties of Chrysanthemum 
named at that date. Still the general culture of the Chrysanthemum 
did not make rapid headway, though the annual exhibitions by Broome 
and Dale in the Inner and Middle Temple Gardens did much to popularise 
it, proving as they did the suitability of these plants for town gardens. 
11,— 
History. 
