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MADAME PAUL LACROI.X. 



THE CHRYSANTHEMUM— ITS HISTORY AND PROGRESS. 



THIS is a flower of autumn and w inter. It brings bright colouring to the greenhouse 

 and conservatory when the Roses have flown and the garden wears an aspect of 

 decay. One treasures the Chrysanthemum, the " Autumn Queen " as it is 

 fancifully christened, and certainly without its handsome flowers of a hundred 

 tints the indoor garden would lose in beauty and interest. It is a flower of the East, a 

 national emblem of sunny Japan, and the " Rose," indeed, of China and the land of Cherry 

 Blossom and Iris. For many centuries the Chrysanthemum has been cultivated with skill 

 in the Japanese garden, and the yearly Chrysanthemum fete in the Imperial grounds is an 

 occasion for national rejoicings. Mr. Alfred Parsons, A.R.A., the well-known flower painter, 

 in his charming book on "Notes in Japan," makes interesting reference to the flowers. On 

 p. 178 one reads : " The first really fine Chrysanthemums I saw were in Yokohama, when I 

 got back there earl) 1 in November. I was disappointed to find that they were in temporary 

 sheds, put up to protect them from rain and sun, and not in masses out of doors as I 

 expected to see them ; but they were excellently grown, and in the softened light of the 

 oil-paper shades their colours showed to great advantage. The plants are treated much 

 as they are with us, raised in pots from cuttings taken in the spring, and encouraged 

 with plenty of manure until the buds are formed ; before flowering they are removed from 

 their pots and planted out in bold groups of colour in the beds which have been prepared 

 for them. Some plants are reduced to a single stem, on which only one enormous blossom 

 is allowed to develop ; these are generally arranged in a line, with each flower tied stiffly 

 to a horizontal bamboo support, and the effect is very sad ; but the excellence of the 



