542 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 22, 1887. 
and Sons, Mr. G. Stevens, Messrs. Laing & Sons, Mr. Wm. Holmes, 
and Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, scarcely a dozen have been found 
sufficiently distinct or meritorious to obtain certificates or be recom¬ 
mended for general cultivation. Another year’s period of proba¬ 
tion may, it is true, develope better characters in some of the 
unsatisfactory ones, but the evidence is indubitable that much 
recklessness is displayed in sending out novelties, the raisers not 
being able to perceive that they will certainly spoil their business. 
In the case of the Chrysanthemum, as with nearly every other 
plant, when a promising novelty is obtained it is increased as rapidly 
as possible, with the result that it probably disappoints many 
growers in the succeeding year, falling short of the characters it 
possessed when first exhibited and certificated. Perhaps in some 
respects the Chrysanthemum is more liable to suffer in this way 
• S 
care with which they are selected and proved before submitting 
them to the public. Knowing the value, too, of distinct sport 
from standard varieties, both incurved and Japanese, cultivators 
apparently watch more closely for them, as the number sent to 
Kensington and Westminster has increased in the past year or two, 
though the character of the season, no doubt, has something to do 
with this. Another mode of addirg to the number of novelties in 
our collections—namely, importing them direct from Japan or 
China, has, however, hitherto been taken advantage of to a com¬ 
paratively small extent. It is now about twenty-seven years since 
Mr. Robert Fortune succeeded in introducing the first supply on 
Japanese varieties, and since then,.until last season, with the 
exception of the interesting importation by Messrs. J. Veitch if 
1881, comprising the well-known Comte de Germiny and Thunberg, 
Fig. 63.-CHRYSANTHEMUM EDWIN MOLYNEUX. 
than most other plants, for it is a quick-growing softwooded plant, 
that in moderate heat can be increased veiy rapidly, but forcing 
the growth has a weakening effect, and strong plants cannot be 
expected from weak attenuated cuttings. It must also be remem¬ 
bered that in sending out a new Chrysanthemum a nurseryman 
must depend almost exclusively upon his first year’s sale, the next 
season it will be so abundant as to be of little value from a trade 
point of view. A consideration of such matters should make pur¬ 
chasers endeavour to meet any expected defects by closer attention 
and better culture, and much can be done in the earlier stages to 
avoid unsatisfactory results. 
Home-raised seedlings from imported seed have become much 
more numerous amongst the Japanese than formerly, and the 
high position some of these have obtained is due chiefly to the 
scarcely anything has been done in that direction. It might be 
expected from tlie great length of time the Chrysanthemum has 
been cultivated in China and Japan, the popularity it has enjoyed, 
and the attention the natives give to flow'ers, that the collections 
would comprise many remarkable varieties, and that additions 
would be frequently made to their numbers. It has even been 
placed on record that there is, or was, a blue-flowered Chrysanthe¬ 
mum in the Celestial Empire, and that it is figured occasionally on 
old china. We cannot, however, obtain any evidence of its present 
existence, and travellers in China have searched in vain for this 
treasure. Nor have I been successful in finding a representation of 
it as stated, either in museums or private collections, and after all 
we must allow artists, like poets, some licence. We have, however, 
a “ blue ” Chinese Primula, why not a Chrysanthemum of similar 
