142 BRECK’S NEW BOOK OF FLOWERS. 
the bouquet,-etc. All these varieties, as now cultivated, 
have full double-flowers. No others are tolerated. The 
improvements that have been made in this flower within 
the last dozen years, are wonderful. The French call the 
China Aster la Reine. Marguerite, which has been render- 
ed in English, the Queen Margaret. By this name they 
are sometimes called; also the German Aster, from the 
improvements which have been made by the florists of 
that country. Some of the very finest are called French 
Asters or the Truffaut Peony Aster, from a Mr. Truffaut, 
a celebrated florist at Versailles, who has produced some 
of the most superb varieties, nearly the size of Dahlias, 
of most brilliant colors, and very double and full. 
These varieties cannot be too highly recommended. 
No class of Asters surpasses them in splendor, perfection, 
softness, brilliancy and variety of their colors. It would 
seem hardly possible that such a wonderful transforma- 
tion could be made from the original, inferior, single flow- 
er; but Mons. Truffaut has made this a specialty, and 
his perseverance and skill have been crowned with com- 
plete success; he has the honor of introducing a class of 
flowers which must stand in the first rank among the or- 
namental plants of the flower-garden. His packages of 
these grand Asters embrace from ten to twelve varieties. 
The flowers are so full and double that they produce very 
few seeds, hence they will always command a high price. 
The double German Globe Aster forms another distinct 
class, embracing all the variety of colors found in the 
Peony Aster. The flowers are large and very full, of a 
globular shape; plants about two feet high. Boltze’s 
Miniature, or Pigmy Dwarf Bouquet Pyramidal Asters, 
are a great curiosity as well as very beautiful. A bou- 
quet of .Chrysanthemum-shaped Asters, of five to ten 
finely shaped flowers, with very rich colors, and of good: 
size, spring directly from the ground, not more than six 
