Plate 37. 
DWARF CHRYSANTHEMUM-FLOWERED 
ASTERS. 
Callistephus chinensis pyrethriflorus . 
One can hardly reflect without astonishment on the wondrous 
power of variation, which is found to he inherent in not a few 
of the plants which have been brought under the influence of 
cultivation. The Rose is but a simple five-petaled flower in its 
natural state, but in the garden its cluster of thread-like sta¬ 
mens becomes converted into a crown of glowing petals. The 
wild Dahlia is star-like, with a ray of coloured petal-like florets 
and a disk or “ eye ” of small yellow tubes, but it was not long 
grown in our gardens, before the little tubes enlarged, and be¬ 
came broad coloured and petal-like, like the outer series in 
the wild flower; or sometimes the change took an opposite di¬ 
rection, the outer florets disappeared altogether, the u flowers ” 
became all disk, and lost every pretension to beauty. Changes 
like these, wrought in some cases in a longer, in others in a 
shorter period, not in the original individuals, hut in their pro¬ 
geny, are familiar to cultivators. Truly there is in plants a 
marvellous power of change. 
It is to this quality that we ow T e the subjects of our present 
illustration. The loosely-branching single-rayed China Aster 
of former days, has all but, disappeared, but in departing it 
has given birth to several distinct and beautifhl races, which 
may be ranged under two principal divisions. In one, the small 
yellow tubular disk-florets have become enlarged, and have 
taken on varied colours without losing their form, these being 
Plate 37. Callistephus chinensis, var. pyeetiiiiielokus: dwarf, branched 
from the base: flower-heads large, full, with imbricating, slightly reflexed, 
strap-shaped florets. 
