164 
THE CHINESE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
It has always appeared to me, that, in order to be certain of 
having a display of Chrysanthemums in the open air, we should 
endeavour to get the plants forward, or, in other words, induce 
a blooming state at an earlier period than usual. It was, how¬ 
ever, with a view to a different object that I stumbled upon what 
seems to be the best means of attaining this end, in my en¬ 
deavours to obtain superior flowers on potted plants. 
The Chrysanthemum, as is well known, when left to itself, 
grows upwards till about the middle of summer, when it begins 
to protrude branches near the summit of the new wood, leaving 
the lower part bare, and this, from the great demand of the 
upper portion, is soon denuded of leaves, to remedy which it is 
usual to stop the first growth when only a few inches high, that 
branches may be formed near the bottom, and when very bushy 
plants are desired, these branches are again stopped. This 
course, without doubt, tends to the production of handsome 
specimens, but the repeated checks thus offered to the plant’s 
progress, and the disposition, so induced, to form new growths, 
necessarily retards the blooming, and consequently the method 
is unsuited to open-air culture. 
Two years ago I observed, at the period when the plants 
naturally begin to form branches, that there were incipient 
flower-buds at the point of each stem, and, fancying the new 
shoots would be likely to rob the buds of a great proportion of 
the vigour that otherwise would be directed to them alone, I 
rubbed the new branches entirely off several stems, leaving some 
others to confirm the error or truth of my suspicions. Those 
which were thus cleared of their additional parts retained nearly 
all the existing foliage, and the flower-buds advanced rapidly, 
arriving at a very extraordinary size by the middle of September, 
when they began to expand, and proved the finest in my 
collection. 
Those which were left in their natural condition grew fast 
and in the ordinary way, formed a large, tall head, but the 
flower-buds died, and no others were formed till the recent 
branches had grown upwards of two feet. That season the 
plants so treated did not flower at all. 
I had never before observed this production of buds, and then 
