18 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fifty recommended varieties are to be found, I may first say that 

 for several years I greedily collected from botanic gardens, from 

 nurseries, and private flower-borders every variety of Aster I 

 could find, either with or without names. Probably from two 

 hundred to three hundred forms have flowered in my garden, and 

 half that number of names, some genuine, many unauthorised, 

 have been written on my labels. Next the process of elimination 

 was rapidly but cautiously carried on. To some which I retained 

 I gave fancy names, chiefly for my own convenience, often adopt- 

 ing the name of the giver, so that some Asters have become 

 popular with a name which was never intended to go beyond the 

 limits of my garden walls ; others, apparently variations of one 

 species, I distinguished by numbers, so the naming of my col- 

 lection has never laid claim to any authority ; but it seemed to 

 me that any fancy name was better than a misapplied botanical 

 name. It must also be remarked that there is so much room 

 for the exercise of different tastes in selection from the endless 

 varieties of this genus, that all gardeners should exercise for 

 themselves a free choice, both in the number and the kinds to 

 be adopted. The mutual interest in gardens would be greatly 

 increased if we could see a different set of Michaelmas Daisies 

 in each garden. Cultural conditions, too, may make corresponding^ 

 variations in ornamental qualities, and the warm sandy soils of 

 Surrey may develop merits in a plant which the cold clay of 

 Cheshire fails to show. For instance, A. sericeus and A. ptar- 

 micoides (fig. 5), which are highly spoken of by some, fail entirely 

 in my garden. 



But to return to the proposed fifty, the selection must be 

 taken as very general and capable of contraction or expansion- 

 It is difficult to know how to class the plants, but it is roughly 

 done according to their height as they grow in the retentive soil 

 at Edge Hall. Of kinds which exceed five feet, I cultivate 

 A. umbellatus, the tallest of all, and spreading its branches 

 elegantly, but without merit in colour or individual flower ; next 

 come two or three tall garden forms, probably of A. Novi-Bclgii, 

 of which one which I call Robert Parker, after the Worthy 

 nurseryman of Tooting from whom I obtained it, is perhaps the 

 best; two or three of Novat-Anglia?, one with pink flowers exceed- 

 ing six feet; there is a tall type of A. versicolor, now perhaps 

 to be superseded by improved seedlings ; and in the heart-leaved 



