Jane 18, 1835. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
£01 
perfected. Experience points to the conclusion that more buds fall through 
iie wood being imperfectly ripened than probably from any other cause, 
lo complete the growth quickly the house in which they are grown 
should be closed early in the afternoon. Syringe |the plants liberally 
twice daily, and keep the paths and floors moistened frequently, so that 
a suitable atmosphere can be maintained about the plants. Abundance 
of water should be given at the roots whether the plants are grown in 
pots or planted out. If the plants lack vigour feed liberally with weak 
stimulants every time water is needed and thus assist them to make strong 
growth to be ripened as early as possible. Shade the plants from strong 
sun.—L. B. W. 
THE HISTORY OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
. The extraordinary popularity attained by the Chrysanthemum 
since its first introduction into this country has perhaps, with few 
exceptions, never been surpassed. Its easy culture, its capability of 
thriving even under the most adverse circumstances, have justly estab¬ 
lished its reputation of being pre-eminently a town flower, and it is 
obvious to those who have watched its advance for many years past 
that, instead of receiving less consideration at the hands of the flower- 
loving community, to be more likely than ever to increase in esti¬ 
mation, To the amateur living in the cramped limited area of a 
London suburb or large provincial town where gardens are disad- 
yantageously surrounded and darkened by walls and lofty buildings 
it is an invaluable adjunct in the ornamentation of his little green¬ 
house at a period of the year when he can expect to have but little 
else in bloom, while to those more fortunate folk who can afford the 
luxury of residing far away in the open country what a wealth of 
colour and beauty does the Chrysanthemum reveal ! 
It is now nearly two hundred years ago since this plant first 
became known in Europe. It has been at various times mentioned 
and described by many of the earliest botanists under numerous 
names, and they differed materially as to the genus to which it was 
properly referable. On this point there does not seem to be any very 
accurate opinion until rather late in the present century. 
There is good reason for supposing that its culture was the object 
of profound and enthusiastic devotion by the gardeners at China and 
Japan for centuries prior to the date of its importation into Europe. 
A well-known traveller in those countries tells us in one of his works 
that so great a favourite is the Chrysanthemum with the Chinese 
gardeners, to whom it was first known, that no persuasion will deter 
theni from its culture, and that they will frequently prefer to resign 
their situations rather than be forbidden by their employers to grow 
it. . He adds in support of this statement that he knew an English 
resident in that country who, without feeling the slightest interest in 
the plant, was compelled to allow his native gardener the pleasure of 
cultivating it solely on that account. 
The Chinese often train the Chrysanthemum into curious and 
fantastic forms, such as pagodas, horses, stags, ships, &c., and another 
peculiar method of culture at Chea-yuen, where it is largely grown 
in most of the gardens, is the grafting of cuttings into stout stems 
of the Artemisia indica as a stock. 
In another work by the same author, speaking of the town of 
Dang-o-zaka in Japan, he relates that the most curious objects to be 
seen were imitation ladies made up out of the flowers of the 
Chrysanthemum. Thousands of blooms were used for this purpose, 
and as these artificial beauties smiled upon the visitors out of the 
little alcoves and summer-houses the effect was oftentimes rather 
startling. 
^ At the most popular of the Japanese festivals the people display 
effigies of their traditional heroes built up with piles of Chrysanthe¬ 
mum blossoms. Benkei, the Japanese Hercules, appears gorgeously 
apparelled in white, purple, and yellow Pompons ; the Sun goddess 
and other mythological persons are constructed out of heaps of these 
flowers. 
In many other ways the Chinese and Japanese show their love for 
this plant, but probably in no more apparent and lasting manner than 
by employing the talent of their most skilful artists to represent its 
beauteous form and vivid colouring on their pottery, their household 
fabrics, and in numberless illustrated books. 
It was from the Chinese that the English gardeners sixty years ago 
learned the practice of growing only one or two blooms on a plant 
and the application of liquid manure, Mr. Wells of Redleaf, near 
Tunbridge, being probably the first among us to adopt this style of 
cultivation. An identical method seems to be followed by the 
Japanese growers, who are stated to produce flowers of a prodigious 
size, allowing only one or two blooms to be perfected at the end of a 
shoot. 
The mention of grafting recalls the fact that the experiment has 
also been tried in this country. In 1825 Lady Gordon Gumming of 
Altyre, who was an enthusiastic horticulturist, conceived the idea of 
grafting several kinds of the old Chrysanthemums on a common 
stock, but a change of gardeners about that period caused the experi¬ 
ment to fall through. The object of this was to induce the plants 
to 6port, a subject which will be touched upon somewhat later. 
Much more recently Mr. Chas. Turner experimented in a like 
manner upon the Chrysanthemum, but on a larger scale. Eight or 
nine years ago he had more than 200 handsome plants worked as 
standards on 3 feet high stems ; but assuming he had the same 
motive in view as Lady Gumming, his venture does not appear to have 
met with any degree of success. 
The Chrysanthemum derives its name from the two Greek words, 
chrysos, gold and antJios, a flower, and is an extensive genus of com¬ 
posite plants ranged according to the Linnsean method in the second 
order of class 19 (Syngenesia). This genus embraces a very con¬ 
siderable number of species which are to be found growing in nearly 
every part of the known world, some of them being so far distant as 
the extreme north-east of Asia, while others are indigenous to many 
parts of western Europe. 
In Asia the barren steppes of Siberia is the habitat of C. absin- 
thiifolium. Kamtschatka is that of C. arcticum. In Northern Africa 
is found C. paludosum, C. carinatum, and C. pumilum. In Asiatic 
Turkey C. tanacetifolium and C. daucifolium. Nearer home, in 
countries of a temperature somewhat approaching our own, there are 
in Hungary C. rotundifolium, C. lanceolatum, and C. sylvestre. In 
Austria C. atratum. In Spain C. anomalum and C. radicans. In 
France C. montanum and C. perspusillum. 
Nor is Great Britain without its representatives, for our well- 
known flowers, the Ox-Eye Daisy (C. leucanthemum) and the Corn 
Marigold (C. segetum), also belong to the same family. 
Notwithstanding the lengthy list just given it may be observed 
that it is not by any means a complete one, inasmuch as Russia, 
Switzerland, Italy, Sicily, the Levant, Mexico, India, China, and 
Japan all contribute additional species of this important and wide¬ 
spread genus. 
But of all these species those of India, China, and Japan are 
perhaps most usually included in the comprehensive word Chrysan¬ 
themum by the majority of people who are engaged in the cultivation 
of a beautiful and deservedly popular flower, not inappiopriately 
designated the Autumn Queen. Of these alone, the named varieties 
of which at the present time number between two and three thousand, 
is it intended to treat in the following pages. 
It has been remarked that the early botanists were at variance on 
the question of the name and genus of the Chrysanthemum, and a 
few references to some of them may be serviceable to the reader 
should he desire to go deeper into this matter. 
Breynius in 1689, in his “ Prodromus Plantarum Rariorum,” most 
accurately describes the Chinese Chrysanthemum. He was the first 
author to mention it, and in that work he calls it Matricaria japonica 
maxima, giving also the Japanese name “ Ivychonophane.” He makes 
allusion to six dissimilar varieties—the white, blush, rose, yellow, 
purple, and crimson, which he states to have been growing in Holland 
at that time. These plants were subsequently lost in the Dutch 
gardens, and it is strange to find that no further account of them can 
be traced, nor did the gardeners of Holland know anything of them 
when the Chrysanthemum was again introduced into Europe a century 
afterwards. Mr. Salter suggests that having called it Matricaria 
japonica maxima it was extremely possible that Breynius knew some¬ 
thing about the small-flowering species we now call Pompon, a con¬ 
jecture for which there is ample foundation, as he really does refer 
to a Matricaria japonica flore minore in his work just quoted. 
The next mention of the Chrysanthemum is by Rheede, a Dutch 
gentleman, the author of the “ Hortus Malabaricus,” published in 
1690, wherein it is alleged to appear that the Dutch were the first 
Europeans to cultivate the small-flowering variety, and that it was 
taken by them to their distant colonies of Amboyna and Malabar, 
where the name of Tsjetti-pu was given to it. An illustration of this 
variety figures in the forty-fourth plate of this publication. 
Plukenet’s “Amaltheum” gives the same plant under the name 
Matricaria sinensis, and his “Almagestum Botanicum ” describes what 
, is considered to be the Chinese Chrysanthemum as Matricaria 
japonica maxima, referring also tethe Kychonophane of Breynius. 
The learned Engelbert Krempfer, Avho visited Japan in 1690, de¬ 
scribes the Chinese Chrysanthemum in his work entitled ‘ Amoenitates 
Exoticae,” published in 1712, under the name of Matricaria, as grow¬ 
ing both wild and in gardens in Japan, being called by the Datives 
Kik, Kikf, or Kikku. He mentions that there are many varieties, 
some of which blossom at all times of the year, and that they are the 
principal ornaments of the gardens in the towns. He distinctly 
describes eight with double flowers, and in addition to these he gives 
others with blooms of very different characters. 
Rumphius in the year 1750 published the “Herbarium Amboinense” 
which is a description and account of plants collected in Amboyna 
and the adjacent islands. In this work the small-flowering species 
is described as Matricaria sinensis, and is stated to have been intro¬ 
duced from China, where it is known as Kiok-hote, and that it is 
called by the Malays “Serune.” He adds also that in the latter 
