THE LADY’S MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
17 
Exotica, published in 1712, and which is a very curious book, written 
in Latin, and illustrated by copper-plates. This work contains, among 
other matters, a long description of the plants of Japan; one of which, 
that the Japanese call Kikf, and that Ksempfer supposes to be a species of 
Matricaria, is evidently our Chinese Chrysanthemum. Ksempfer describes 
thirteen varieties of this plant, ten of which, including the quilled-yellow 
and the cup-shaped white, are now common in British gardens; but 
three remain to be introduced there: one a procumbent plant, with clusters 
of small, very double cream-coloured flowers; another, a tall plant with 
large ccerulean blue flowers; and the third, a short bushy plant, with very 
fragrant yellow flowers. 
Rumphius, in his Herbarium Amboinense , gives a long and interesting 
account of this plant. He says that the Chinese value the plant highly, 
and bestow great pains on its culture ; and that they grow it in pots and 
jars, which they set upon their tables when they give entertainments. 
He adds that it is esteemed a mark of respect to present the finest flower 
to the most honoured guest; and as the extent and value of the com¬ 
pliment is estimated by the size of the flower, he tells us, that in order 
to produce these large flowers, the Chinese gardeners are obliged to check 
the growth of the plant, as, if it is left to itself, it grows tall and rude and 
produces little else but leaves; but that when it is made dwarfish, it produces 
abundance of flowers. He also tells us that each branch usually produces 
three blossoms, but that the Chinese pinch off two of these in the bud, which 
occasions the remaining flower to increase so much that it is often broader 
than a mans hand ; and that if the same plant be suffered to remain more 
than two years in the same ground, it degenerates; for which reason, he 
continues, the Chinese raise new plants every year. He then says that 
three kinds were cultivated by the Dutch in Amboyna, but that the 
flowers did not expand well, because they were produced at the rainy 
season ; and that they decayed without producing any seed. 
This account is very curious on account of the details respecting culture, 
which agree so well with the practices and experience of modern days, 
as to afford another proof of what has been so often observed, that many of 
what we consider modern improvements, are in fact only revivals of the 
knowledge of our ancestors. But to continue the history of the Chrysan¬ 
themum. It is next mentioned by Thunberg, in his Flora Japonica ; 
and he not only describes it in its wild state, but says that the extreme 
beauty of its flowers had made it cultivated in gardens and houses 
throughout the whole empire of Japan. The first of these plants is 
said to have been introduced into England in 1764, and from that 
period till within the last eight or ten years, nearly all the kinds of 
VOL. i.—NO. i. 
D 
