THE MICHAELMAS DAISY AS A GARDEN PLANT. 



25 



where they come up. " 111 weeds grow apace " is especially 

 true of these plants. They perhaps flower unnoticed the first 

 year, and the second assume a running habit and infest the 

 roots of their neighbour in such a way that they cannot be dis- 

 entangled, and in another year they overwhelm and supersede it ; 

 then they get distributed — spurious usurpers of a good name — 

 and are perpetuated. I have often seen a choice border spoilt by 

 these running seedlings. 



It is superfluous to add, be careful in the selection of seed- 

 lings. Tall or short, panicled orumbelled in flowering habit, are 

 matters of taste ; but nothing is of greater importance than the 

 form and colour of the disc. A large disc, with a rich, deep golden 

 colour, sets off a flower which has no other good points, and may 

 in the next generation prove a very important factor. 



At all events, there is plenty of room for improvement both 

 in colour and habit, and by looking over hedges we may 

 accidentally find distinct advances in cottage gardens. But in 

 order that we may encourage the improvement of a flower, we 

 must show that it is a desirable flower and worth the trouble of 

 developing. The way in which Michaelmas Daisies have gene- 

 rally been dealt with, both in private and in nursery gardens, has 

 hardly tended to raise them from obscurity. It can hardly be 

 expected that they will ever compete with Pyrethrums and Del- 

 phiniums in popular favour, but in most gardens they are grown 

 more or less, and what is worth growing at all is worth growing 

 in its best form. 



Now that these plants have been brought into prominent 

 notice by being honoured with a conference at Chiswick, we may 

 hope that they will not be afterwards lost sight of, but that a 

 selection will be made from the many kinds brought together 

 this year, which will form a standard for the future to which 

 gardeners may refer their specimens. 



For botanical names of species we must look to Kew, where 

 many plants ought to be and are grown which are not very orna- 

 mental ; but the gardens of the Eoyal Horticultural Society 

 ought to keep nothing which, after a fair trial, does not prove to 

 .be decorative, and to add nothing to the collection which is not 

 a distinct advance in its kind on those already there. Neither 

 the space nor the time required to keep up such a collection 

 would be any obstacle to this plan. Once a year, in early spring, 



