358 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
SUMMER MANAGEMENT OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
ET JAMES CHUTE, ESQ., SUTTOK, SUEEET. 
HILB the readers of the Floeal Woeld are enjoying 
their chrysanthemums, I wish to say a word on one 
very important point in their management. To the 
philosopher the remarks I have to make will explain 
why the chrysanthemum is so especially a town flower ; 
and to the florist, whether in town or country, it will explain one 
of the great secrets of success and failure. Although I have grown 
chrysanthemums many years, and taken many prizes, and have been 
familiar with the collections of other amateurs of this glorious 
flower, it has but lately occurred to me with any degree of force, 
that strong sunshine, long continued, is decidedly injurious to the 
plant. When residing in Holloway my large flowering and Japanese 
varieties were as fine as any amateur could wish, and they gained 
me some credit when I exhibited them at the two great shows held 
in the Guildhall of the City of London, in the years 1865-6. Now 
that I am located in a more open district, my chrysanthemums are 
less satisfactory, both in growth and bloom ; they appear to miss 
the London smoke and actually to dislike pure air. Now it may 
happen that the carbonaceous and other impurities of a town atmo- 
sphere benefit the plant in the way of food, but I think the prin- 
cipal reason of the difference is due to the difference in the light to 
which they are exposed throughout the summer. The garden at 
Holloway was in some part shaded by large trees and houses, and 
the air being more or less smoky, the sunshine was modified. Here 
the plants have no shade from trees or walls, and owing to the 
greater purity of the air, the sunshine is considerably fiercer, and 
thus I think the whole case is explained. It is a notorious fact 
that we rarely see chrysanthemums in the country, even in the best 
managed gardens, equal to the best that are grown in towns, and 
hitherto, so far as I know, no one has attempted an explanation. 
Had I been less an enthusiast in the culture of the flower, the 
explanation now offered might not have occurred to me, but the 
plants seem to speak in plain language, saying, “We cannot endure 
the full glare of the summer sun in this pure air, so next season 
make a bed for us in some cooler, shadier place !” 
Solar Heat and Vegetable Carbon. — Helmholtz says that in a piece of 
cultivated land producing corn or trees, one may reckon per year and per square 
foot of land 0.0361b. of carbon to he produced by vegetation. This is the amount 
of carbon Tvhich, during one year, on the surface of a square foot in our latitude, 
can be produced under the influence of solar ra}-s. This quantity, when used as 
fuel, and burnt to produce carbonic acid, gives so much heat that 291 lb. of water 
could be warmed 1° C. Now we know that the whole quantity of solar light which 
comes down to one square foot of terrestrial surface during one year is sufficient to 
raise the temperature of 430,000 Ih. of water 1“ C. The amount of heat which can 
be produced by fuel growing upon land is, therefore, only about the 1474th part of 
the whole energy of solar light . — Boston Journal of Chemistry. 
