HISTORY AND CLASSIFICATION. 
7 
CHAPTER I. 
HISTORY AND CLASSIFICATION. 
TfiE genus chrysanthemum contains a good many annual 
and perennial species, but the only ones we are concerned 
with in this volume are the varieties of indicum and 
sinense, originally natives of China and Japan. The 
generic name, chrysanthemum, by the way, is derived 
from two Greek words, “ Chrysos ” (gold) and “ Anthos” 
(flower), the Golden Flower. The correct pronunciation 
of chrysanthemum is kris-an’-thg-mum. 
History. — The varieties of Chrysanthemum indicum 
and sinense have been cultivated for ages, and held in 
profound veneration by the inhabitants of the Celestial 
Empire. It is recorded that the first plants which found 
their way to Europe were grown in Holland in 1689. The 
first evidence of its presence in England is a record of its 
being grown in the Apothecaries’ Garden at Chelsea in 
1764. A large-flowered variety is said to have been im- 
pKjrted from China in 1789 by M. Blanchard, of .Mar- 
seilles. Later, twelve varieties are recorded as being 
grown here in 1820; forty-eight in 1826; and fifty-three 
in 1834. A Mr. John Salter settled in Versailles in the 
third decade of the last century, and raised quite a num- 
ber of new sorts, which became popular in this country. 
In 1843 Robert Fortune, a famous plant collector, 
went out to China and sent home what he termed the 
Chusan Daisy, which became eventually the parent of 
the miniature-flowered type known as Pompons. In i860 
to 1862 Mr. Fortune paid a second visit to the East and 
introduced the first Japanese varieties. From that time 
onwards the rearing of new sorts, and the cultivation 
c 
