572 On the Cultivation of Chinese Chrysanthemums. 



on the number of those I wish to retain, which is usually 

 about three. I pick off all the others, and never suffer more 

 to grow either from the stem or from the roots. 



Early in September, I shift the plants into thirty-two size 

 pots, using rich mould in the planting ; they are not again 

 plunged, but kept in an airy part of the garden, until frost, 

 or bad weather, obliges me to remove them into the con- 

 servatory. After the shifting, I water them occasionally 

 with rich liquid manure, the drainage of a sewer, and which 

 is composed of soap-suds and other matters. When they 

 begin to shew for blossom, I examine them at different 

 times, and by thinning reduce the number of flower buds. 



The advantages resulting from the above mode of treat- 

 ment are, that the flowers are large, and the plants dwarf, 

 not being higher than from two to three feet ; they are 

 besides full of large, perfect, and healthy leaves. Neither 

 am I under the necessity of preserving so many old plants 

 through the winter, for two or three of each sort will pro- 

 duce abundance of shoots, after the flowering stems are cut 

 down, to furnish cuttings in the spring. 



I have adopted the above practice for three seasons ; 

 the addition of the liquid manure, I have used this season 

 at the suggestion of a Chinese, who informed me that it is 

 constantly employed in the cultivation of this plant in 

 China. 



The plants, when treated as I have described, are very 

 different in their appearance from the Chinese Chrysan- 

 themums, as usually grown ; they have no shoots from the 

 roots, which allows the strengh of the plant to go to the 

 blossoms, a single stem rises from the pot, and at the height 



