mum flowers first were brought out of 
the Orient, and it was not till attention 
had been attracted to their rare and 
decorative beauty that the plant was 
rechristened and grown for ornament. 
A Chinese writer calls it “ the flower of 
retirement and culture.” After com¬ 
merce with China had been firmly es¬ 
tablished, many seeds and cuttings were 
brought from there by merchant sailors 
for their women folk at home, much 
as bulbs had been carried from Hol¬ 
land. France first took great pains in 
raising seedlings and growing flowers 
with incurved petals — what is called 
now the Chinese type of flower. For 
greater popularity, however, we must 
look to the Japanese varieties, so 
odd and bizarre in shape, some ragged 
with petals curved and twisted in 
every direction, and some with but 
two rows of petals fringing the golden 
eye. 
