172 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



thick, leathery leaves, very variable in shape and degree of 

 cutting, and densely clothed with a white tomentum on the 

 under surface. The flower-heads were large, with thick woolly 

 bracts, a yellow disc, and a white ray. A similar plant, with 

 very rounded lobes to the leaves, had long previously been col- 

 lected in the Loo-Choo Islands. These plants Mr. Hemsley 

 regarded as typical C. morifolium (sinense), and their almost 

 exact counterparts in foliage and involucral bracts were pointed 

 out in the double-flowered varieties exhibited. The three wild 

 forms exhibited could not, with practical utility, be united as 

 varieties of one species. In botanical matters they could not fix 

 varieties in the same way that florists did. They had to deal 

 with the wild material, and name it in the most convenient way 

 they could — usually from dried specimens ; and he was convinced 

 that to throw these three forms together would not make what 

 he had called a useful or intelligible species. 



DWARFING AND GROUPING CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



By Mr. C. Orchard. 



In advocating the practice of cutting down, thereby dwarfing the 

 Chrysanthemum plant, I am encouraged by the many excellent 

 examples that it has been my pleasure to see in various parts of 

 the country this season. Compared with what was generally 

 seen a few years ago, these show a marked improvement in the 

 strength of the plant and the substance of the flower ; and I 

 doubt not that many more will eventually be induced to try the 

 system, to obtain suitable plants for conservatory and other home 

 decorations, or for competitive groups at exhibitions. 



There has been much diversity of opinion amongst growers 

 as to the merits or demerits of the cutting-down system as com- 

 pared with the right-away or natural system, but I must again 

 say there is but little analogy between the two ; and in advo- 

 cating the cutting-down system, I have never contended that it 

 should supersede the orthodox way of growing the large exhibi- 

 tion blooms that have been produced by the natural system of 

 our leading exhibitors ; but I do contend that many of the plants 

 that produce these large blooms are very unsightly, and that 

 dwarf plants with good healthy dark-green foliage can be grown 



