50 
year Mv. 'Wheeler exhibited soirie of his seedlinj?s before the Horticul¬ 
tural Society, and is recorded to have received a Banksian medal, his 
being the first seedlings raised in England. It appears that early- 
flovering varieties seed much more freely than later kinds, the former 
blooming before the season of damp and fog. Single-flowered ones 
seed most plentifully. They can bo made to flower the first year by 
raising the seedlings in a hot-house and planting them out in the 
ground about May. Grafting is sometimes performed, but where the 
advantage comes in I fail to see, unless one grafts weak growers on 
to strong-growing ones to improve them. There are several ways of 
propagating them, but the usual way is by cutting, and in case of a 
sport, which is of frequent occurrence, the branches are not cut off, 
but are laid on the mould and kept moist, without being separated 
from the plant, when in due time the roots appear at many places and 
young shoots which can be propagated ; and in some cases, where a good 
variety is scarce, they are propagated from leaf with bud and a piece 
of stem attached. There are several methods of growing chrysanthe¬ 
mums, which I shall only touch upon slightly. Those who grow large 
blooms for the exhibitions often let them grow with one stem only, all 
others being removed, and get them from Oft. to 8ft., 10ft., or lift, 
high. It is (piite a science to know how to produce blooms of good 
quality of every kind ; to get the best results, some come best on the 
crown bud, otliers o)i the second crown, others are better on the 
terminal bud, but all are better in colour on the terminal, or last bud, 
but often not ([uite so large as those on the first and second crown 
buds. Late flowering chrysanthemums are said by some not to be 
required, but a l)atch of plants in bloom at Christmas and onwards are 
most valuable. Chrysanthemums fill up a great gap in the season 
wheir flowers are scarce ; they are not at all particular as to soil and 
situation. In 1H<)2 there were sent to Ihigland eight varieties of 
chrysanthemums from Wellington, New Zealand, frozen in blocks of 
ice at the meat-freezing works at Wellington, in April, and were exhi¬ 
bited before the National Chrysanthemum Society in Hepternber, and 
report says there seemed no reason why they shouid not have remained 
so for years, the colours of those Antipodean chrysanthemums suffer¬ 
ing but little by the process. 
