mum flowers first were brought out of 

 the Orient, and it was not till attention 

 had been attracted to their rare and 

 decorative beauty that the plant was 

 rechristened and grown for ornament. 

 A Chinese writer calls it " the flower of 

 retirement and culture." After com- 

 merce with China had been firmly es- 

 tablished, many seeds and cuttings were 

 brought from there by merchant sailors 

 for their women folk at home, much 

 as bulbs had been carried from Hol- 

 land. France first took great pains in 

 raising seedlings and growing flowers 

 with incurved petals — what is called 

 now the Chinese type of flower. For 

 greater popularity, however, we must 

 look to the Japanese varieties, so 

 odd and bizarre in shape, some ragged 

 with petals curved and twisted in 

 every direction, and some with but 

 two rows of petals fringing the golden 

 eye. 



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