OPENING ADDRESS. 



Ill 



Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for so kindly listening to 

 these few remarks, very hastily thrown together ; and, if I have 

 wearied you by being so uninteresting, you must kindly put it 

 down to my great anxiety not to trench in any way on any of 

 the subjects which the readers of papers have already so kindly 

 appropriated as their own ; for otherwise I should but have fore- 

 stalled their knowledge by my own simplicity. And if I have been 

 too long, you must remember that it is just as difficult sometimes 

 for a layman, as it is proverbial for a parson, to be brief. 



THE WILD PROGENITORS OF THE 

 CHRYSANTHEMUM. 



By Mr. W. Botting Hemsley, F.R.S., A.L.S., Assistant for 

 India in the Herbarium, Kew. 



Dkied specimens of a wild Chrysanthemum sent by Dr. 

 A. Henry from Central China to Kew have thrown a new light 

 on the parentage of the cultivated Chrysanthemums. As long 

 ago as 1792 a Mr. Ramatuelle, when recording the introduction 

 of the Old Purple, figured in the Botanical Magazine for 1796, 

 plate 327, denned and described it as a species distinct from 

 Chrysanthemum indicum, Linnaeus, and gave it a specific name 

 under the three genera Anthemis, Matricaria, and Chrys- 

 anthemum, in order to meet the diverse views of botanists on 

 generic limits. Under Chrysanthemum he gave it the name 

 of morifolium, sl fact overlooked by Sabine and subsequent 

 botanists. 



Concerning the wild parent of C. indicum there has been 

 no difference of opinion. Some of the cultivated forms are 

 easily connected with it, while others, such as the " Chusan 

 Daisy," may belong to this species, or may be of hybrid origin. 



With regard to the wild parent of C. morifolium (C. sinense) 

 there has ' been less certainty. Maximowicz took the slender 

 plant which I have here named gracile — and I, in the ' 'Index 

 Florae Sinensis," accepting this view without investigation, 

 described the very different looking plant collected by Dr. Henry 

 as a doubtful variety, under the name vestitum. At Mr. Dyer's 

 request, I selected a number of sheets of dried specimens of 



