522 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 25, 1885. 
ciently supplied with moisture when young many of the l’oots 
will perish, they will become stunted, and no amount of after 
watering will bring back their usual or former vigour. Water 
should be applied to maintain their full strength, not to renew it 
after a great loss has occurred. Of iquid manure for vegetables 
we cannot speak too highly, and dissolved artificial manures, as 
well as drainings from all kinds of manure heaps, may be used 
copiously. Spreading on the manure around the plants or along 
the sides of the rows, and then watering on the top of it to 
wash the fertilising properties down to the roots, is a practice 
which cannot be too strongly recommended. — A Kitchen 
GARDENER. 
THE HISTORY OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
( Continued from page 502.) 
The variety last alluded to was totally dissimilar in every respect 
from its predecessor of 1764, for it was one of the large-flowering 
kinds. The credit of this was dyie to a Mons. Blanchard, a merchant 
of Marseilles, who in the year 1789 imported three plants from China, 
the white, purple, and violet, but out of these three only one, the 
purple, reached France alive. This is the one of which Monsieur 
Ramatuelle published an account and description in the work 
previously quoted. He at first supposed it to be a double C. indicum, 
but in his memoir he called it Anthemis grandiflora, having satisfied 
himself and the French botanists that it could not be the C. indicum 
of Linnaeus. This supposition was no doubt occasioned by the re¬ 
semblance of the foliage. 
In the following year several plants of this purple Chrysanthemum 
were sent hy Mons. Cels, a Parisian nurseryman of considerable 
repute, to the Royal Gardens at Kew, and was the first large-flowering 
Chrysanthemum in modern times known either here or on the 
Continent. In November, 1795, it bloomed at the nursery of Messrs. 
Colville in the King’s Road, Chelsea, a firm much celebrated for the 
beauty of their Chrysanthemum exhibitions in after years. 
When Curtis, in the <l Botanical Magazine,” pi. 827, figured and 
described the same plant in England, he, without making reference 
to the account of Mons. Ramatuelle, probably because the war 
between France and England prevented his acquaintance with it, 
called it C. indicum, and by this name the Chinese Chrysanthemum 
was popularly known for many years by the English people. 
For the first few decades of the present century there was scarcely 
any other plant half so popular as the Chinese Chrysanthemum, and as 
it had then attracted considerable attention as a florists’flower it began 
to sell for a high price. Messrs. Colville, who were the first successful 
growers to bloom the purple Chrysanthemum, which, it may easily 
be imagined, bore but little resemblance to those we now see in the 
most insignificant collections, were, with one or two other florists, the 
cause of the great celebrity which it soon acquired. There was no 
addition to this variety (also known as the old red, the old purple, and 
the quilled purple) for several years, until 1798, when between that 
year and 1808 eight new sorts were imported—one by Mr. Thos. 
Evans of Stepney, and the remaining seven by Sir Abraham Hume. 
To these nine varieties a tenth was added — viz., the changeable 
white, a sport from the old purple in 1802. Between 1808 and 1816 
there was another interval, but in the latter year and up to 1823 there 
were seventeen new ones brought over. 
The interest of the zealous gardeners of England having been now 
excited, they were induced to continue the further introduction of 
additional sorts, and besides the two gentlemen already named, Mr. 
John Reeves, a tea buyer for the East India Co., was one of the most 
active men in enlarging the list. 
These and the previous importations took place in the yeai’3 
following. In 1798, the rose and buff. 1802, the golden yellow, 
the quilled yellow, and the sulphur yellow. 1806, the Spanish brown. 
1803, the quilled white and the large lilac ; of these the sulphur 
yellow was the one imported for Mr. T. Evans, and the other seven 
were those imported at the instance of Sir A. Hume. 1816, the 
tasselled white for Thos. Palmer, Esq., of Bromley ; this first 
flowered in 1818. 1817, the superb white, which first bloomed in the 
garden of Messrs. Barr & Brooks of Ball’s Pond, in 1818. 1819, In 
May of this year these gentlemen, who were subsequent!} 7 cultivators 
of no little merit, imported three varieties, and in the month of August 
three new plants reached the gardens of the London Horticultural 
Society. Out of the first three, one proved to be the tasselled white, 
the second was called the quilled salmon-coloured, and the third was 
named the small yellow single Chrj smthemum, and was concluded to 
be a variety of the plant described by Linnaeus as the C. indicum. 
Those belonging to the Society were first, the quilled flamed 
yellow, a variety much after the style of a modern Japanese, 
the second a replica of the superb white, and the third the quilled 
pink, erroneously said by Mr. Salter to have been introduced seven¬ 
teen years before. It will be seen that, although six sorts were 
introduced this year, only four were really new. In the monthof June, 
1820, twelve kinds sent over by Mr. Reeves, who acted as corre¬ 
spondent of the Horticultural Society at Canton, arrived with the loss 
of only a single plant, so that the next year opened with a good 
prospect of an increased stock for those whose anxiety had been the 
cause of their advent. In the autumn of the same year twelve 
varieties, all that were then known in this country as having had 
their flowers and habits ascertained, were cultivated in the gardens of 
the Horticultural Society. 
Towards the close of 1821 the Society received two more sorts 
viz., the small yellow Chrysanthemum (supposed to be a sport from 
the sulphur yellow), which did not bloom till the following season, 
and of which no account as to its introduction to this country could be 
discovered, and the paper white Chrysanthemum, first observed in 
flower by Mrs. Marryatt and her sonin Covent Garden, who purchased 
it and gave it to the Society. 
Of the surviving varieties dispatched to this country by Mr. 
Reeves in 1820 eight blossomed satisfactorily about this time, and 
were named—the early crimson, large quilled orange, expanded light 
purple, quilled light purple, curled lilac, superb clustered yellow, semi¬ 
double quilled pink, semi-double quilled white ; while the remaining 
three, which did not flower until the season of 1822, were the 
semi-double quilled orange, large pale purple (subsequently known as 
the late pale purple), and the eleventh turned out to be a duplicate of 
the quilled pink. . _ 
The endeavours of the Horticultural Society, hitherto aided by the 
friendly exertions of Mr. Reeves and the obliging attentions of the 
commanders of the China ships, were destined to receive a severe 
check in the year 1822. An assortment of forty varieties correspond¬ 
ing to the drawings of some Chinese Chrysanthemums made by a 
native artist for the Society had been diligently made by Mr. John 
Potts, a gardener in their service, w T ho went to China in 1821, but the 
whole were unfortunately lost on their way home. In 1823 Mr. J. D. 
Parks was sent to China with instructions to collect, among other 
rarities, as many good varieties of Chrysanthemums as possible, and 
he despatched a part of his collection in the spring of the following 
year, bringing with him the others on his return. Altogether his 
collection numbered twenty varieties, only four of which proved 
to be varieties already known. 
At the beginning of 1824 there were twenty-seven well-known 
sorts which had been thoroughly tested and approved of, thirteen of 
which had been represented in different botanical works. Mr. Reeves 
returned to England this year, bringing with him several plants, of 
which two were new kinds. Capf. Mayne also in this year brought a 
collection of Chinese Chrysanthemums home, which he presented to 
the Duchess of Dorset, but there were but one or two new sorts. In 
1826 the Horticultural Society’s collection comprised forty-eight dis¬ 
tinct kinds. Of these, four were sports, which originated in England ; 
two, the origin of which was unknown ; and the others imported, as 
already mentioned. The novelties described in this year were :—The 
pale pink, a sport from the rose in 1822 ; early blush, imported by 
Mr. Parks and Capt. Mayne ; Parks’ small yellow, by Mr. Parks in 
1824 ; blush Ranunculus-flowered, by Mr. Parks in 1824 ; tasselled 
yellow, by Mr. Parks in 1824 ; changeable pale buffi, by Mr. Parks in 
1824 ; curled blush, a sport from the curled lilac ; tasselled lilac, 
imported bv Mr. Parks in 1824 ; two-coloured red, imported by Mr. 
Parks in 1824 ; pale buff, imported by Mr. Reeves in 1824 ; Windsor 
small yellow, origin not known ; clustered pink, imported by Captain 
Mayne in 1824; semi-double quilled pale orange, starry purple, 
golden lotus-flowered, brown purple, two-coloured incurved, late 
quilled yellow, Yellow Warata’h (all imported by Mr. Parks in 1824) 
—a variety entirely different from all the others, and supposed to be 
the precursor of the large-flowering Anemone section ; the double 
yellow Indian Chrysanthemum, the flower of which did not exceed 
14 inch in diameter ; and the double white Indian Chrysanthemum, 
with flowers not more than 1 inch across. These last two sorts were 
also in Mr. Parks’ collection, and were considered at the time to be 
double varieties of the C. indicum. 
Up to this date we And a total of eighteen sorts had been engraved 
in works like the “ Botanical Magazine,” the “ Botanical Register,” 
“ Sweet’s British Flower Garden,” &c. ; but, with the exception of 
the tasselled yellow, not one of these old kinds are now in existence, 
having gradually disappeared as the newer and more improved 
varieties were sent out. 
Mr. Donald Munro, the gardener to the Horticultural Society, some 
few years later gives a list of forty-nine distinct sorts of the Chinese 
Chrysanthemum, enumerating all the varieties to which allusion has 
already been made. Besides giving some cultural and other informa¬ 
tion he divides the Chrysanthemum into four classes in the following 
manner :— 
Class 1, flowers large or showy, requiring protection. 
„ 2 „ „ quite hardy. _ 
„ 3 „ „ but produced sparingly. 
„ 4 „ small or late, not worth cultivation. 
