POMPONE CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 281 
POMPONE CHRYSANTHEMUMS—PYRETHRUM INDICUM, Yars. 
Nat. Order .— Composite l Corymbiferte. 
Generic Character. — Pyrethrum, Gcertner. — Capitules 
many-flowered, lieterogamous ; florets of the ray in one series, 
ligulate, pistillate, very rarely wanting; florets of the disk 
tubular perfect. Involucre bell-shaped with the scales imbri¬ 
cated, their margins scarious. Receptacle convex, naked, or 
flat, and sometimes with small palese. Corollas of the ray 
ligulate, of the disk tubular, tube often compressed, two-winged, 
more rarely round, limb five-toothed. Anthers without appen¬ 
dages. Stigmas of the disk without appendages. Achcenia 
alike, not winged, irregular. Pappus crownlike, very often 
toothed, sometimes auriculiform, of the diameter of the achcenia. 
—Herbs, mostly perennial, rarely shrubby, sometimes annual, 
scattered, over the temperate regions of the old world, more 
abundant in Europe; leaves alternate, dentate, or variously 
lobed; capitules solitary or corymbose; disk yellow, or very 
rarely white; ray white or very often yellow.—( Endlicher Gen. 
Plant. 2670). 
Sect. e. Dendranthema. De Candolle.— Involucre scarious, 
capitules very readily becoming partly or altogether double by 
increase of the ligulate florets; scarious bracteoles thin, scat¬ 
tered among the ligules upon the receptacle. 
Pyrethrum indicum, Cassini. — Indian Chrysanthemum. 
Stem shrubby, branched; branches pubescent at the summits; 
leaves stalked, ovate, incised, pinnatifid, closely toothed, flaccid, 
quite entire at the summit; involucre of very obtuse scales 
with the margins broadly scarious; ligules little shorter than 
the involucre.— De Candolle Prodromus. 
Florists’ varieties :—• 
1. Pompon d’Or. 3. Daphnis. 
2. La Fiancee. 4. Circe. 
f DESCRIPTION.—Shrubby perennials, with dull green erect pubescent stems. Leaves stalked 
' alternate, or imperfectly opposite by approximation, the general outline broadly ovate, 
deeply cut into five lobes, the sinuses somewhat rounded on the angle, the lobes rather spathulate, 
the terminal longest: the two inferior smallest and half-joined to the two intermediate lobes, all 
crenate with slightly apiculate teeth; the blade of the leaf prolonged from a wedge-shaped base 
into a gradually decreasing wing to the petiole ; the axils mostly bearing a short branchlet with 
a tuft of small leaves. Leaves all dull green above minutely corrugated and again punctate, 
dull pulverulently mealy below from the presence of a minute stellate pubescence lying fiat 
upon the surface. Inflorescence axillary and chiefly collected into a terminal corymb by the 
crowding of the floral leaves. Peduncles bracteolate about the middle, with one or two small 
trifid wedge-shaped or simple lanceolate leaves. Involucre somewhat hemispherical, of about 
three rows of obtuse, somewhat wedge-shaped scales, with brown scarious margins, a solitary 
one frequently a little below the involucre. Receptacle conical without palese, pimctulate, with 
raised papillae for the florets, or with a few membranous bracts among the ligules of double florets. 
Ray ligulate; the ligulate florets with a long tube and short broad entire bifid or trifid ligule, 
often concave, female, the style elongated. Disk with tubular perfect florets, the tube longish 
somewhat campanulate, with about five acute and erect teeth (very readily becoming ligulate, 
flore plena). Stamens syngenesious without appendages ; styles elongated, stigmas like those of 
the female flowers. 
The species P. indicum of Cassini is said by De Candolle to differ from P. sinense only in the 
very much smaller size of the capitules, and on 
those grounds we refer the present plants to this; 
hut the distinction is anything but satisfactory; 
indeed the description of P. sinense in the Pro¬ 
dromus would agree better with orm plants in 
regard to the leaves, which are more properly 
“ sinuately pinnatifid, toothed, coriaceous and 
glaucescent,” and we should have referred it to 
this supposed species had it not been for the remark 
contained in the same work, that P. sinense and 
P indicum “ only differ in the former having the 
capitules twice or more than twice as large.” 
The present race of varieties strike us as being 
produced by some artificial process of dwarfing, 
such as is common with the Chinese, and the 
result has been the great reduction of all the vege¬ 
tative organs—the stem, leaves, and corollas; while 
the reproductive organs—the stamens, pistil, and 
achsenia, are more developed than in the ordinary double garden Chrysanthemums.—A. H. 
A perfect chrysanthemum. 
