168 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



are represented by two or more different varieties, the result is 

 often a matter of annoyance and confusion. 



Summary. 



From the foregoing information it appears that the early or 

 summer-flowering Chrysanthemums produce seed more freely 

 than the late kinds, but that all kinds produce seeds from the 

 latest or starved blooms in a warm, dry, and airy atmosphere. 

 Single-flowered kinds seed most plentifully, and are also as a rule 

 more fragrant than the double kinds, while the incurved varieties 

 produce seed most sparingly of all the sections, because deficient 

 in pollen. The fact of good seed having been ripened on flower- 

 heads cut from the plants and preserved in vessels of water in a 

 dry, warm, and airy greenhouse is very interesting, and would 

 be a method worth resorting to during damp and foggy seasons. 

 I am also perfectly convinced that if half the keen observation 

 and ability displayed by the growers of large show blooms was 

 devoted to the practice of careful cross-breeding and seed-pro- 

 duction, we should soon equal any raisers in the world in the 

 production of new varieties. Even in Portugal and Spain, and 

 in the warm Southern States of America, where the Chrysanthe- 

 mum seeds spontaneously, there are many other climatic draw- 

 backs that neutralise success. Incurved varieties, for example, 

 cannot be grown in America, wdiere a Peronospora attacks their 

 leaves and kills them off, and in Southern France the climate 

 also spoils them. 



After all, no natural climate in the world can equal, all things 

 considered, our glass-house climate in many parts of England, 

 where the plants are absolutely under our control. I am sure 

 we are all free-traders, inasmuch as we gladly take the best 

 seedlings from America or France, or whencesoever they may 

 chance to come, but at the same time I think we should also do 

 our own best to originate more Chrysanthemums than we now 

 do. I believe it is a well-proved axiom that the plants best 

 suited to our gardens are the plants we raise from seeds grown 

 and sown under the climatic conditions in which they have to 

 live and thrive. People used to say we could not grow seedling 

 Roses in England, but it has been done, and our English seedling 

 Roses are equal to those of any other land. We must not blame 

 our climate as an excuse for our own shortcomings, and I will go 



