October 19, 1882. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 857 
19 th 
Til 
20th 
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21st 
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SDN 
20th Sunday after Trinity. 
23rd 
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24th 
TO 
Sale of Liliurn auratum at Stevens’s Booms, Covent Garden. 
25th 
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MICHAELMAS DAISIES. 
ERENNIAL Asters, or, as they are popularly 
termed, Michaelmas Daisies, are late this year. 
Michaelmas-day found more of them in bud 
than in flower. Many of the plants in this 
second week of October have not yet opened 
a flower, and some, strange to say, show no 
igns even of a bud ; still the splendid weather 
re have lately had has made some of them very 
The name Michaelmas Daisy belongs properly; 
lid, to one of the North American species, Aster 
novi-belgii, but is generally applied indiscriminately to all the 
many forms of perennial Aster, Boltonia, Galatella, and some 
other names, of which some of the species flower early in sum¬ 
mer and are over long before Michaelmas. Generally, however, 
the class is characteristic of early autumn, and the most desir¬ 
able of them are in average seasons at their best about the 
beginning of October. 
The ease with which they may be cultivated, even in town 
gardens, is one of their chief merits ; but it is a mistake to 
think that they do not require any attention. Though they 
may exist and flower in any soil or situation, a good rich soil 
and a warm sunny situation adds greatly to their beauty. 
They also require to be pulled to pieces after flowering—the 
stronger kinds every year, and other kinds according to their 
increase—and replanted, not more than three stalks being 
planted several inches apart in the same bunch. In this way 
the lateral branches find room for development, and the flowers 
are not all crowded together at the top of the stalk. The 
increase of some Asters is prodigious. We have seen wonder¬ 
ful calculations of the produce of a pair of rabbits in two 
years, reckoning by a sort of compound interest, but a single 
shoot of a vigorous species of Aster may be made in the same 
time to produce a sufficient number of plants to stock all the 
gardens in a county. Some of them, if left to themselves, 
become troublesome weeds, though others, it is true, require 
encouragement to persuade them to grow; but these are 
exceptions. 
It is easier to obtain a collection of plants of Asters than to 
get their right names, and it is better to select Asters for pur¬ 
chase by sight than by name. It is said that Professor Asa 
Gray is the one special authority for their names, and that a 
monograph of the genus is now being prepared by him, to 
which many*of us are anxiously looking forward. At present 
it is hardly possible to get Asters correctly named. I have 
been guilty occasionally of sending the same flower to three 
different authorities, each of whom have given it an entirely 
different name. Out of about sixty species or varieties grown 
in this garden there are hardly ten about the names of which 
there is anything like a general consent. Many Asters are 
worthless as ornamental plants ; other kinds are of bad habit, 
but are useful for supplying cut flowers, and a vase filled with 
well-selected and well-arranged Aster flowers will not be de¬ 
spised as a decoration by those who have good taste. Though 
I cannot guarantee the correctness of my names, I will mention 
twelve of the best of the large collection of Asters now in 
flower in this garden. 
The first and best I bought two years ago from Mr. .Robert 
Parker of Tooting by the name of Aster amethystinus. It has 
large semi-double flowers of a clear pale slate blue. It is tall, 
with spreading branches, and the flowers are well displayed. 
It increases so rapidly, that besides having it all over my gar¬ 
den I have distributed it to at least twenty other gardens. 
Next I place the form I call A. novi-belgii No. 1, the best 
variety of that variable species. It has flowers of nearly the 
same colour as the last, but more thickly set, and with a single 
row of outer rays. It is rather earlier in flower. These two 
grow from 5 to 6 feet high, according to the situation, the first 
being the taller by a foot. Then comes A. Amellus and its 
variety bessarabicus, closely allied to one another, and having 
relations hardly distinguishable, sold to me under the names of 
cassubicus and amelloides ; but for gardening purposes I class 
these four as one. The height is about 2 feet, the flower heads 
broad and thickly set with flowers, and the colour light purple. 
The fourth and fifth places I assign to the two best forms of 
A. novoe-anglise, the purple and the pink, sold as “ ruber,” but 
being in reality a good bright clear rose colour. There are 
several varieties of both these forms, differing in colour, in the 
time of flowering, and in the mode of opening their flower. 
All of them are liable to the objection of being too tall, and of 
flowering only at the top of the stalk, not making many lateral 
branches. 
Next comes A. lsevis, a fortnight earlier in flower than the 
last, and having the merit of flowering from the summit, which 
is 5 feet high, nearly to the ground ; but the spikes are loose, 
and the flowers look better when gathered and massed together 
than when growing. A. versicolor is a most effective plant 
for garden display, perhaps beaten by none. It grows 8 feet 
high, and the mass of flowers is immense. It changes each 
flower from white to light purple, but neither the white nor the 
purple is very pure. Next in merit comes an Aster for which 
I have never been able to get a name at all, though it resembles 
one sent to me by Mr. Lynch of Cambridge, which he calls 
A. sestivus. I have had it from three or four sources, mostly 
cottage gardens. In habit it resembles novi-belgii, and in 
colour Amellus. 
These eight are all large-flowered, and I now mention an 
Aster about 4 feet high with an elegant curved feather-like 
growth and abundant small flowers, either pale mauve or 
creamy white, for there are two distinct forms. It has heart- 
shaped leaves, and is sometimes wrongly called cordifolius—a 
name which belongs to a coarser plant. I suspect that pani- 
culatus is its right name. It is common in cottage gardens, 
and worth growing in any garden. A. niveus is a plant with 
large nearly pure white flowers. It was given me with that 
name by Mr. Harpur Crewe, who expressed uncertainty about 
its correctness ; but the flower is good, though not produced 
in long succession. It grows about 3 feet high. A. Chap- 
No. m.—Von. V., third Series, 
No. 1777.—Yol. LXVH1.. Old Series. 
