THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, December 10, 1850. ]7<) ! 
sired from a crop of Swedes which had been sown in 
[ May. The great value of this variety, therefore, con- 
. sists in its being sown late in the season, when the other 
j Swedes may have failed, and producing a crop as great 
as the other Swedes would have done had they succeeded. 
! We were told that it is perfectly hardy. With this 
variety of the Messrs. Sutton we contrasted the Orange 
Swede on the stand of Mr. Isaac Wright, of Colchester, 
i which was sown in the middle of July, and which is 
intended, also, to supply the deficiency caused by the 
failure of other Swedes; but both in size and quality 
of the root it appears to be infinitely inferior to the 
' Improved White Swede. It is “shanky” in the neck, 
and has a long, tapering, and hard base. On this stand 
' we also observed specimens of Grass Seeds, and speci¬ 
mens of the entire plants. 
Mr. Chiva8, of Chester, exhibited specimens of the 
| Orange Jelly Turnip and two roots of Mangold Wurtzel. 
I The collection of Mr. Skirving, of Liverpool, con- 
; sisted mainly of large specimens of his Swedish Turnip, 
and a few immense roots of Long Red and Globe 
Mangold Wurtzel. 
Messrs. Thomas Gibbs and Co., seedsmen to the 
Club, occupied a large space with large specimens of 
Mangold Wurtzel and Field Turnips ; dried specimens of 
the pasture Grasses mounted on paper, and inclosed in 
glazed frames; and ears of Wheat similarly mounted. 
Messrs. George Gibbs, of Down Street, Piccadilly, had 
a large collection of Field Turnips, Mangold Wurtzel, 
Field Carrots, and other agricultural plants, among 
which we observed specimens of the Sugar Beet, so 
extensively used in France for the production of sugar, 
a manufacture which has been introduced, of late years, 
to the south of Ireland with some degree of success, 
i We also noticed large roots of the Chicory as grown for 
the production of the chicory of commerce. 
With these few remarks we close our observations on 
the Show for the present, leaving the notice of such 
implements as are adapted for domestic use till 
future opportunities. 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
I called again on Mr. Salter, of the Versailles Nursery, 
Hammersmith, which Nursery is now allowed by common 
consent to be the head-quarters in this country of this 
fashionable family. I expected to have found him more 
at leisure than he generally is in the summer; but I 
i reckoned without my host. He is “ torn to pieces ” at 
this season, but seems to look all the better for it; and 
i when we know that “rapid consumption” is mere pas- 
1 time with market-gardeners we may sympathise with 
Mr. Salter, without considering him in much danger for 
being obliged, just at this Chrysanthemum season, to 
| dine by candle-light. 
There were seventy-five kinds of Pompones alone in 
. the Experimental Garden to bloom this autumn, and we 
1 shall have a very fair show of them in-doors till the turn 
; of the new year; but for the last six weeks our curator 
i has been going about more like a man with a hurnble- 
> bee in his ear than a public functionary, because, as he 
! alleges, “ this has been a very bad time of it for them.” 
No sooner did the shoots begin to “top-knot,” or bud 
for bloom, than the late equinoctial rains came upon 
them, and kept them under till they were housed in a 
| worse condition than ever any of their kind were in this 
country for the last twenty years; but it was a great 
consolation to us all when we heard that Mr. Salter had 
ample cause for complaint on this score. Many of his 
very best kinds had gone “ blind;" but he did not seem 
■ to suffer in the least from another disease which spoiled 
some collections round London, and which affected the 
plants, like the Potato disease, by withering the foliage, 
i 
Mr. Salter’s list of Chrysanthemums of all kinds 
amounts now to 686 sorts, and the last of them is the i 
most curious ot all the Pompones, and the very best 
ot them to mix in bouquets. The name is Ninette. It 
branches irom the very bottom, every side-branch is of 
the same length (between three and four inches), and 
carries one flower only. The colour is pale sulphur, 
turning white by age, and is just the shape of a button 
from a little pages close jacket, or three paits of a 
perfect ball, and the petals overlay each other as closely j 
as the feathers on a pigeon’s breast; but the family l 
has become so numerous, that it must be agai i divided 
into several heads, clans, or sections. The o.d breeds 
from China are called the Large Chrysanthemums, which 
are subdivided into incurved, that is, those with the 
petals turned inwards to the centre of the flower, and 
not incurved, which includes all other forms at present. 
Pompone is the next division, and means the small 
Chrysanthemums as compared with the old stock. Lilli¬ 
putians, or Matricaria-like flowers ( Matricarioides ), in¬ 
clude all the very smallest, and these are only about 
half the size of Pompones proper. 
Then there are Hybrids, aud these are larger than 
true Pompones, being crosses between the old breed 
and the new. This new breed is a spontaneous variation, 
like that of the Dahlia, without the aid of the pollen 
from another section or kind, the Chusan Daisy Chry¬ 
santhemum being the first parent. 
When seedlings are got from mixing the pollen of 
one kind of Pompone with another kind of Pompone, 
all that are worth keeping of them are those of the 
size of Pompones or the next lowest Lilliputian. All 
the seedlings which are larger than the parent Pompones 
are generally wild, ragged weeds, and good for nothing. 
The last main section is called Anemone-flowered, aud 
in this section are extremely pretty new kinds; but 
some people do not like them, while others prefer them 
to all others. Mr. Salter told me that there is a rage 
for really good Anemone-flowered kinds, and that the 
public taste here and on the Continent is widely 
different on all florists’ flowers, and more particularly on 
this family and this section of it; and he instanced' his 
old seedlings in the large class, Fleur de Marie and 
Naney de Sermet, the two finest kinds in that class, but 
differing so much in florists’ character, that in England 
ten plants of Fleur de Marie sold for one of Nancy de 
Sermet, while on the Continent the latter was twelve or 
fifteen times more in demand. The English taste, at 
present, for Anemone-flowered kinds is to have but one 
single row of guard petals round the honey combed or 1 
Anemone-looking centre, and if the guard happens to 
be in contrast of colour with the centre all the better; 
but it is not insisted on. 
The best kind that is “coming out” next season, 
according to my eye, is of the same colour all over, 
guard and centre. That colour was between lilac and 
French white when I saw it; but the whole race is 
changeable in this respect, and, whatever the first tints 
may be, they never get deeper, but always paler, and 
the warmer the place is in which they are flowered, the 
paler every one of the tints comes at last. 
Mr. Salter has a large house, into which he takes as 
many of the new kinds, and as many of the leading sorts 
of the older ones, as he can put together. Just as they 
are coming into flower in the open borders he takes 
them up with good balls, and places them on the borders 
in this house, or “ winter garden," fills in between the 
balls, with walks in different dix-ections to got on for 
seeing and examining them in detail. He does not sell 
any of these; they are only to show you the best kinds. 
Smaller plants are kept in pots for selling. 
If gardeners could bloom them on this plan, without 
ever being in pots at all, they would make ten times 
more show with them, and at much less damage to 
