CHRYSANTHEMUM. 55 



grown in England was one that bore small yellow flowers, 

 in the Botanic Garden, Chelsea, in the year 1764. It is in- 

 teresting to be enabled to add that a dried specimen of this 

 very plant was (with others) presented by the famous gar- 

 dener at Chelsea, Philip Miller, to the Royal Society, and is 

 now in the herbarium of the British Museum, in the series 

 known as " Miller's Specimens.'" But this plant perished 

 soon after the transfer of Miller's specimens ; and it was 

 not until the year 1789 that the true Chinese chrysan- 

 themum obtained a place in Europe. In that year M. 

 Blanchard, a merchant of Marseilles, imported three plants, 

 the white, purple, and violet ; but the purple only survived 

 that expedition to become a garden flower. In the year 

 following the Royal Gardens, Kew, obtained a specimen of 

 this purple chrysanthemum; and thus the large-flowering 

 chrysanthemum, the queen of autumnal flowers, obtained a 

 home in this country. One hundred years have passed, and 

 every year has seen something of importance added to its 

 history, for from the first flowering of well-grown plants 

 in Colville's nursery, at Chelsea, in the year 1795, it has 

 been a subject of public interest and of increasing im- 

 portance in the social circle. There are now over two 

 thousand varieties named and registered, and hundreds of 

 societies that especially recognise and encourage the culti- 

 vation. The number of these societies being ever in- 

 creasing is an intimation that the chrysanthemum has not 

 even yet reached the zenith of its fame. 



In the cultivation of this plant, it should be kept in 

 mind that it is not perfectly hardy in this country, and, 

 therefore, as a garden flower that every year challenges 

 the winter by flowering late, it is often much marred by 

 unkind weather. In the autumn of a recent year, the 



