THE CHRYSANTHEMUM, AND ITS CULTURE. 
masses ; secondly, as a dwarf showy plant, 
sufficiently protected to preserve its foliage 
in choice clumps or flower borders ; thirdly, 
as a pot plant, to bloom under cover, and be 
removed wherever flowers are wanted. 
AS HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
In all large concerns there are portions of 
the ground, especially distant from the dwell- 
ing, laid out as rough borders, in which her- 
baceous plants that require no culture are 
planted, to grow, spread, and bloom, year 
after year. Hollyhocks, Michaelmas daisies, 
Aaron's golden rod, perennial lupins, ever- 
lasting peas, early primroses, monk's-hood, 
digitalis, and a hundred other plants that die 
down and come up again, are planted and left 
without any other culture than forking the 
borders after they begin to grow, and giving 
an occasional dressing of some kind of manure. 
The Chrysanthemum ought to be among them, 
and form no small proportion of the whole. 
The yellow, primrose, white, red, brown, 
purple, and various other shades, may be 
planted in the spring. The ground ought not 
to be rich ; vigorous growth is very much 
against hardiness. The plant that will live 
through a frost in poor ground, will perish in 
the same temperature if the land be rich. 
This has been found by the growers of bro- 
coli. In hard winters acres have been cut. off 
in rich ground, while that in less exciting soil 
has escaped. If the border is anything like 
good ordinary loam, it is better merely to see 
that it is well drained, and plant without any 
dung or dressing. As the plants advance in 
height stakes should be placed to tie them up 
to, so that they may not be broken by high 
winds, and in due time, if frosr does not inter- 
vene, they will flower the first year, though 
not very strong. After the bloom is fairly 
off, and the beauty of the plant gone, they 
may be cut down to within four inches of the 
ground, and, if the weather be very severe, 
and litter can be had handy, a little thrown 
over the herbaceous border will protect many 
half-hardy subjects from damage. But there 
are many who do not think it worth the 
trouble, and therefore let all things take their 
chance. In the spring the plants shoot up 
much stronger, and require the same care as 
to tying to stakes ; but in these rough borders 
a single stake is generally all that is bestowed, 
thebranches being merely tied somewhatloosely 
together, something like a wheatsheaf, for 
the head of bloom covers all over the top, and 
looks best in a mass, besides being less damaged 
by hard weather. In this way, year after year, 
the plants will grow up and spread until they 
form huge bunches, with great masses of 
flowers ; and, when they become too large, 
*hey may be lessened by taking some of the 
roots away, all round, with the plants attached 
to them. This may be done by chopping off 
with the spade ; the pieces chopped off may 
be planted out elsewhere, or be used to make 
good any that are damaged or have died. 
The same management would apply also to all 
the other herbaceous plants of the kind, but 
our business is with the Chrysanthemum. 
AS DWARF PLANTS IN BORDERS. 
To make a naturally tall plant grow dwarf 
is not always an easy matter, but the facility 
with which the Chrysanthemum strikes en- 
ables us to take the tops off when they have 
made a considerable part of their growth, and 
thus produce the bloom -upon a stem half the 
length that it would have been. "We have 
always allowed the plants to grow as fast as 
they would, in a pit or greenhouse, or the open 
ground, but it is far better in the pit or 
greenhouse. In the months of June, July, 
and August, we have taken the tops of the 
strongest shoots, about three inches in length ; 
these should be cut up to a joint, and the lower 
leaves cut off, so as to leave half to three quar- 
ters of an inch of bare stem. Now prepare 
some wide-mouthed pots, by putting one-third 
of crocks, and fill up within three quarters of 
an inch of the edge of the pot, tapping the 
bottom on the potting-table to settle the soil 
moderately close, and make it quite level. 
The soil ought to be half loam, one-fourth 
turfy peat rubbed through a coarse sieve, and a 
fourth rotten cow-dung, also rubbed through 
the sieve. Fill up the pot with silver sand, 
which will be, of course, three quarters of an 
inch thick on the other soil, and with a very 
gentle watering saturate the sand and the soil. 
Then take a bell-glass, that will just fit a little 
within the edge of the pot, and, having first 
made a mark by pressing the edge into the 
sand, stick in the cuttings, ^o that the bottoms 
touch the soil through the sand, and not more 
than an inch apart. A gentle watering will 
settle the sand down close to the stems, and 
the glass should be then covered over, pressed 
into the sand a little to exclude the air, and 
the pot should be placed in a slight hot-bed, in 
a propagating-house, or in a cool part of the 
stove, and be shaded from the rays of the 
sun by a paper over the bell-glass. Whether 
there be one or twenty pots is immaterial — 
the same process must be gone through with 
each and all. Every morning the glasses 
should be wiped dry and bright ; cleanliness 
is everything with cuttings. The sand must 
be moistened whenever it gets nearly dry, and 
if any one of the cuttings exhibit anything 
like mildew or damping, remove it imme- 
diately from the pot, as there is nothing sooner 
caught than mildew or damp. In the course of 
a few days, comparatively, the cuttings will 
