186 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SUMMER AND EAELY AUTUMN CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



By Mr. W. Piercy. 



By early-flowering Chrysanthemums I mean such as flower 

 naturally before the beginning of October, and call such as 

 bloom during that month semi-early, these terms being about 

 equal to the French descriptions precoce and hatif. 



I have in my paper before the National Chrysanthemum 

 Society on these sorts, reported in the Gardeners' Magazine of 

 September '21st, and Journal of Horticulture, September 19th, 

 1889, dealt somewhat with the modern history of these early 

 sorts, which began about 1868, and said also some little as to 

 their ancient record before that date. I have a number of printed 

 and written lists previous to that time, and my friend Mr. 

 Harman Payne has kindly supplied me with several scarce ones, 

 but I think that my limited space will be better used in the con- 

 sideration of the present and future than in dealing with the 

 dead past, which I value chiefly as lighting up the immense 

 future and progress of the present time ; besides, I know but one 

 really good old sort that is not surpassed, and that is Frederick 

 Pele, a crimson Pompon, which, probably, is not beaten because 

 crimsons are so very scarce. 



The main uses of early varieties are not so much to win 

 prizes, of which there are few offered at present, and which 

 somewhat militates against their more rapid development, as de- 

 corative ground and pot plants. During the months of September 

 and October they are mostly useful to supply vast masses of cut 

 flowers. They, except a few sorts such as the Desgrange family, 

 do not show their most valuable qualities as the bud-picked 

 plants of the late show kinds, but their excellences are seen when 

 more naturally grown. The points of the best varieties in the 

 late sorts have to be judged from an exhibition point of view, 

 so much so that the minds of many judges of the late sorts become 

 so moulded to judge of plants and flowers of that description, 

 that there are very few indeed fully competent to detect the most 

 valuable features of these early kinds ; in fact, unless some con- 

 siderable experience in the positive practical culture of them has 

 been had, I do not think it possible that a proper and efficient 

 decision can be obtained. My opinion is, that we have not only 



