70 
THE FLORIST. 
rate sovereign ; and when I find how things are obliged to do double 
duty, I can only think of his celebrated body guard,—which at one time 
astonishes the weak minds of all the good people of his metropolis by 
its military evolutions in the Grand Platz,—and the next evening is to 
be seen helping the manager of the theatre to make a military display 
on his boards. All these little manoeuvres, as they are immortalised by 
Thackeray, are worthy of a German principality or of a small garden. 
There is no time of the year when one is so put to it as just now. 
Pansies must have their frame to bloom in, Carnations cannot yet be 
potted, nor bedding plants quite trusted to straw frames, and conse¬ 
quently there is an overcrowding, which is excessively unpleasant, but 
alas! for a fortnight or three weeks inevitable. There is one flower, 
however, which, from the manner in which it endures bad treat¬ 
ment, is a very model of patient suffering, about which I desire to say 
a few words, viz., the Chrysanthemum ; and as Mr. Salter has furnished 
a plate of two new ones in the present number, my words may be 
apropos. Of course, I do not for a moment suppose I can say anything 
at all novel in praise of the Chrysanthemum king of the Versailles 
Nursery, but he and I may look at the same thing from different points 
of view, and so perhaps there may be something in this short paper 
suited for some of my compeers, wlio are as straitened in extent of 
garden, time, and means as I am. 
Most of the papers that I have read on the treatment of this flower 
have been evidently written by persons who have had an exhibition in 
view, and are therefore quite unsuited, either in the manner of growing 
which they recommend, or the sorts approved of, for such purposes as I 
want them. If one be contented to nip off all blooms save one or two 
from a plant, in order to get size, then you may recommend a certain 
sort; but if that sort be a lanky grower, throwing its arms and legs 
about in all directions, then the goodness of the individual flower cannot 
save it from proscription ; nor, again, is it any use telling us how we 
may get plants four feet through,—simply for this reason, that we do 
not want them if we could; we want only a few short, bushy, well- 
headed plants, that will do well in six or eight-inch pots. And to obtain 
this is a matter of no difficulty; the Chrysanthemum will take almost 
anywhere, and grow in the most apparently unlikely localities. It is 
the only flower which successfully braves the London smoke,—as any 
one who has seen the splendid show of them in the Temple gardens 
will be ready to acknowledge, where they are certainly to be seen not as 
specimens of an attempt to grow under difficulties, but in beauty, 
equalling, if not excelling, anything of the kind elsewhere. My plan is 
generally to strike under a north border in a hand glass about the 
month of April, and when well struck, which they will be in a few 
weeks, to pot them off singly into large thumbs. As soon as they have 
filled the pots with roots, I then pot them off into those they are to 
bloom in, i. e., about six or eight-inch—the stuff to be well rotted turfy 
loam and stable dung. They do not require anything very porous, for 
one grand point with them is to remember they are “ thirsty souls ; ” 
they should never be allowed to flag, for this tends more than anything 
