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PROGRESS IN CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



By Mr. Shirley Hibbebd, F.R.H.S. 



It appears that the subject I am appointed to discourse upon 

 is partly historical and partly biological, for the progress seen in 

 the development of the Chrysanthemum corresponds with the 

 progress of taste in selection, and illustrates the capabilities of 

 the flower to respond to the demands of taste operating through 

 time, with definite ends in view. By the term " taste " may be 

 understood, in this connection, all that we might otherwise call 

 science, art, or technical floriculture, for we employ the means 

 at our command for the production of flowers of certain types 

 and styles, and it is the taste, whether true or false, that 

 influences our endeavours from first to last. 



In the development of the flower from its earliest forms, as 

 it came into the hands of Europeans, to the splendour in which 

 it appears at this time, the florists have been the principal 

 agents ; but, happily, they have not been all of one mind as a 

 party, bound by severe laws and obligations, but of very diverse 

 tastes, and often operating in contrary ways ; in many instances 

 earnestly labouring and succeeding in obtaining forms that in 

 other instances would have been, and actually were, regarded as 

 undesirable, and even objectionable. As an example of the 

 advantage to society in establishing a diversity of forms of a 

 particular flower, the London florists objected without hesitation 

 to the fantastic and often eminently beautiful forms of the so- 

 called Japanese varieties that a school of florists in the South of 

 France may be said to have doated on ; while Frenchmen, on 

 their part, cared but little for the sumptuous incurved flowers 

 that were as emblems of all possible perfection to the florists on 

 this side. But the men were better than the schools that owned 

 them, and they soon perceived in each other's favourites beauties 

 that should be recognised and qualities that should be 

 encouraged. 



I shall have to touch the history, but I will endeavour to 

 keep clear of the connected story told by Mr. C. Harman Payne. 

 And I shall have to touch on the raising of seedlings, and I will 

 endeavour to keep clear of the ground that we hope and expect 



