September 28, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
59 
the name of Nanum. In 1877, also, I procured Madame 
Picol, or Piccol, sometimes spelt Peeoul—I do not 
know which is right. I mention these not because they 
were the only varieties, but that they are still two of 
the best in their respective lines of colour. Madame 
Piccol has since produced a red sport which is called 
Mr. Piercy, because it first sported at my place. I do 
not know who raised either of them, but that they 
came from France there can be little doubt. Some were 
probably known and grown as early as 1817, for the 
London Horticultural Society offered a Medal for early- 
flowering Chrysanthemums in that year, but I do not 
know with what results. 
1858 to 1878. 
Mr. Broome’s little book, published in 1858, according 
to Mr. Harman Payne, mentions thirteen sorts. 
Among these were Scarlet Gem, since called Little Bob, 
its proper name being Dr. Bois Duval, and Frederic 
Pele, which seems to have preserved its French name 
all through until now. These two are still grown, and 
F. Pele is even now the best in its line for many 
purposes, but Dr. Bois Duval, although a fine colour 
and doing well in some places, is a very weak plant 
and difficult to keep in winter. Mr. Salter, in his 
book published in 1865, gives a list of fifteen sorts, but 
Mr. Harman Payne, in his notes referred to, does not 
say whether Illustration is in either of those lists. 
This was one of the best old sorts, being hardy, robust 
of good habit, dwarf, and free-flowering. It has had 
many names and several sports, and for a considerable 
time was the principal variety grown. Its proper 
name is Marie Longarre, as I imported it from France 
so-called. It is still grown by some, and is good for 
rough culture and common flowers. The first I know 
about it is that it was procured by Mr. Watson, of 
Islington, from a churchyard at the west end of London 
in 1869, and it was the first sort he had. Precocite is 
another old sort still grown in large quantities for cheap 
yellow cut flowers, and holds its position because it is 
robust in the open ground, and owing to a slight 
incurve of the flowers packs and stands carriage well io. 
large bunches. I knew nothing of this before 1877. 
A few years previous to this most people seemed to 
know nothing about early-flowering Chrysanthemums ; 
others said they were quite common, but some of the 
latter were such that if you were to show them a bit of 
the North Pole would say they had seen plenty of that 
before. Early in 1878 the late Mr. Helman, of Crontes, 
Guernsey, sent me some cuttings without name, which 
he did not know, and could not find out, so I named it 
after that place, Saint Croutes. It turned out to be 
identical with the one found by the Rev. F. Freeman, 
at Saddington Rectory, Leicestershire, hence called by 
him Saddington, but found afterwards by importation 
from France to be Pollion. It is still the best in its 
line, not in its original colour—pink—but white, to 
which it sported a few years after at Tooting, Surrey. 
. It must ever be borne in mind that the qualities 
desirable, and stamping many of these sorts as good 
and best are quite different from those of the late sorts 
and those to win prizes at shows, with the exception 
of such as Madame C. Desgranges and Leoni Lassali. 
They are not fit for the long-stick-with-a-flower-or-two* 
at-the-top sort of plant, or those monstrosities which 
look like a kind of illustrated loo table, both of which 
shapes no Chrysanthemum, either early or late, ever 
grows in naturally. 
Discovery of Madame C. Desgranges. 
The most striking point to advance in general estima¬ 
tion these early sorts, and to silence objectors and stir 
up indifference, was the discovery in the summer of 
1879 of Madame Castex Desgranges, by Mr. Robert 
Parker, at that time of the Exotic Nursery, Tooting, 
Surrey. This was found by him in a lady’s garden in 
Wales. On March 15th, 1880, he gave me two little 
plants of it, and from those two little plants and his 
stock the bulk of those now in cultivation have come. 
As is customary, as soon as this variety became known 
we had the cry common in such cases that it was known 
before. Old French catalogues were found in which 
there was the name, but no one had seen the plant. 
Others said they had it, but I did not find they had the 
stock. It was on the lists of Mons. Lemoine and Mons. 
Crousse, of Nancy, France, of March, 1881, but I 
expect they had it from England the year before, or 
raked it up from some place in France, for we had 
heard nothing of it from them before March, 1881. 
Lemoine says it was raised by Boucharlat. Crousse 
spells it Desgranges. However, it was then, and is 
now, the very best early Japanese, either in its white 
or yellow colour, and its primrose sport called Mrs. 
Burrell. It was a curious thing that the very next 
summer we heard of the first yellow sport of Madame 
C. Desgranges, and I found it had sported in six places 
the same colour. This is one of the curious aspects of 
sports, that after a plant has been grown a number of 
years from the seed, it sometimes the same year or year 
after, sports in a second or more places, just in the 
way that we had three sports of Mdlle. Lacroix in three 
places in 1888. Other sorts never sport at all, as in the 
case of Nanum, although it is now old. I have known 
it since 1877, and it has been grown in all sorts of 
places and in large quantities for cut flowers, never 
varying in the least, but being neither better nor worse 
than the first year grown. 
French Varieties. 
At the end of 1881 we received from Mons. Lemoine, of 
Nancy, Lyon, which is one of the very best Pompons 
of the early kinds we ever had or have. Its faults are 
its delicacy in winter and spareness of cuttings, but in 
all other respects it is first-class. I have counted four 
hundred and thirty-four florets in a bloom. It is now 
to a great extent superseded by its red sport, Alice 
Butcher, which is in every respect the same with the 
exception of the colour, and reds are much more scarce, 
also much more liked by the ladies, who are great 
factors in the cut-flower trade ; besides the original 
colour much resembles Blushing Bride. At the end of 
1881, too, we received also from Mons. Lemoine, 
Mdlle. Jolivart. This is still one of the most beautiful 
and useful Pompons we have. I have not found any¬ 
thing to surpass it in all its good qualities. It has 
never sported, being white as at first. It was in 1881 
that we also received for the first time La Vierge, a 
white October bloomer. I denominate all that bloom 
up to the end of September early, and those that bloom 
in October semi-early, which terms are about equal to 
the French prt.coce and liative. 
In 1883 we first discovered the merits of a new sort 
imported from France by Mr. Ware, of the Hale Farm 
Nurseries, Tottenham. It was called Late Flora, but 
why it was so designated we know not, for it is very 
early, and the best yellow Pompon in its line. It is a 
reflexed yellow flower, and blooms for months together, 
commencing in August. We have [dropped the word 
Late, and now call it Flora, but there are two more 
Floras, which are late ones. 
It was not till 1885 that we found the one we named 
Blushing Bride. It was among a lot of wrongly-named 
old sorts that were imported from France by Mr. Davis, 
of the Lilford Road, Camberwell, and is believed to 
have been raised by an amateur. This is still the very 
best in its line, and will bloom twice in one season. In 
1886 Mr. T. S. Ware imported from Mons. Pertuzes, of 
Toulouse, the raiser, Leoni Lassali, which was of an 
entirely new type among the early sorts, being a large 
ivory-white flower of a semi-incurved character. It is 
very beautiful in many respects, not sd profuse a 
bloomer as some, but that is made up by the beauty 
and size of the flowers. It blooms in August, and 
stands alone, being a large-flowered sort, and is not a 
Japanese. 
The New Type of Japanese. 
Grace Attick is the last grand new sort entirely distinct 
that we have received. I believe it was raised in New 
York by Mr. John Thorpe, and imported by Mr. Cannell, 
of Swanley, Kent, in 1887. It is a quite new type of 
Japanese, a white large flower on a dwarf plant. The 
very earliest of all Chrysanthemums, blooming a month 
earlier than Nanum, and coming out at the very begin, 
ning of May, under glass of course. I believe that this 
plant will be largely grown, and should we be able to 
seed it in England, or in some other climate, it will 
probably be the origin of an entirely new branch of the 
early-blooming sorts. It is very dwarf and bushy, a 
good grower in summer, but weak and very liable to 
mould off in propagating in spring, with a disposition 
to bloom itself to death in summer. 
The great uses of these plants are to decorate gardens 
in the open, even in the north of Britain, where the 
late kinds would be destroyed by the frost, and to fill 
the gap in the season between the summer flowers and 
the November Chrysanthemums. Their dwarf and 
bushy habit fits them very much for pot plants for 
decoration and sale as such, while their capacity to 
supply cut flowers is unbounded. Considering the 
labour and expense, as well as their durability in a cut 
state in water, they are perhaps the cheapest and most 
effective flowers grown. Besides, there is one great 
point more in their favour, they will grow and flourish 
in the smoky and dirty air of towns and suburbs, where 
few plants will flourish, and where no Rose will live and 
bloom. 
Troubles with Foreign Seed. 
As to the progress in future, the aspects are most 
promising. Years ago I began to grow seedlings. My 
first lot grew very well, and when blooming time came 
they were still growing into plants of vast size, but no 
sign of bloom appeared. I then heard, “ Oh, they do 
not bloom the first season.” So I saved them till the 
next year, when their size was magnificent ; but the 
bloom, when it came, was such that we threw them all 
away at once. Subsequent batches were no better. 
These were all from foreign trade seed. I then began 
to look around, and on the railway slopes at the back 
of my ground saw the wild English Chrysanthemum 
Leucanthemum, the Oxeye or Dog Daisy, in bloom in 
May. So I thought to double that, but it was no 
good ; all the seedlings came exactly like the parent, 
in every way so very different in that respect from the 
seedlings of the other Chrysanthemums, whieh I then 
attributed to the foreign seed being from mixed plants. 
I could get no seed from the really early sorts till Mr. 
John Thorpe sent me a small packet of early seed from 
New York, in 1835, from which I raised over 100 plants, 
among which there was only one really good early 
variety, which I named Piercy’s Seedling. This was 
my first real success in raising new kinds, for it is 
really good. But I wished to raise my own seed, so 
that I should know what I was doing. I tried in vain. 
I sent plants to Mr. Laxton, the seed grower of Bedford, 
on hot, sandy soil; and to Mr. Elliott, of Jersey, with 
no better results. The seeds, under a strong glass, 
were seen to be infertile. I then prepared to send the 
early sorts to the South of France and Algeria, and the 
Rev. F. Freeman sent some to Ohio, U. S.A. In the 
meantime I was on the look-out for some early single 
sort. This, through the craze for single flowers, I 
procured by the kindness of Mr. W. H. Cullingford, 
who grew a lot of seedlings from seed he had from Mr. 
B. Hartland, of Cork, Ireland, and named Hartland’s 
Marguerite. It was a great, tall, profuse-blooming, 
nearly single white Pompon, and I had plenty of seed 
from it the first season. From this seed the next 
year I selected two dwarf plants of the best character, 
and from the seed of these I have now some real beauties. 
I still have one of these, which I call Seedbearer, which 
even in last year’s bad season perfected good seed. 
Hartland’s Marguerite. 
When I first grew the seed of Hartland’s Marguerite it 
was with immense surprise I saw that instead of the 
plants being all alike they were nearly all different from 
the parent, though there was a family likeness in some 
of them. Last season I again grew the seed of these 
two selected plants separate, and have as their descend¬ 
ants—Goldsmith, a fine early yellow Pompon, which 
will bloom twice in one season ; Clara, good early white 
Pompon ; Miss P. Broughton, late white Pompon ; 
White Lady, lovely early white Pompon ; Dodo, pretty 
little yellow dwarf Pompon, and others. Besides 
these, the year before last I had good seed from Salter’s 
Early Blush, from which I have raised an advance on 
it that I have named Jacintha. We have also from the 
seed of these two seedlings, among the plants grown at 
Mr. Ware’s nursery last season, a very beautiful dwarf 
white Pompon, named Duchess of Fife ; it is about 1 ft. 
high, and was in bloom on August 12th. The flowers 
resemble Mdlle. Marthe. It is entirely different from 
all others. We had also from this same lot of seedlings 
grown at Mr. Ware’s the most beautiful early yellow 
Pompon in cultivation. We have named this Golden 
Shah. The colour is the very finest deep yellow, very 
bright ; the flowers are 2j ins. across, deep, full, and 
reflexed. The plant grows 2 ft. high, with slender but 
strong habit; the foliage very spare indeed, and each 
flower has a good long stalk, so that every bloom can 
come out, which renders it very good for cutting pur¬ 
poses, besides giving the plant a very elegant appearance. 
It is a very rapid grower. Thus two plants raised from 
cuttings inserted on March 24th were in full bloom by 
July 25th, and two more struck on May 24th were in 
full bloom on July 29th. It stands rain wonderfully 
well for so delicate a flower, and is certainly the very 
finest early English seedling up to this time, as well as 
being the best early Pompon, English or foreign. It is 
remarkable also as being raised from seed saved at 
Forest Hill, and only two generations from the poor 
white Hartland’s Marguerite, which was nearly single. 
All this is not only good as regards Chrysanthemums, 
but very wonderful as an’illustration of vegetable physi¬ 
ology. I regard it as a revelation in itself worth 
having, apart from the gain of such a plant. 
The greatest and earliest friends and helpers in what 
I may call the modern history of these sorts, which 
began in England about 1868, are Mr. Shirley Hibberd, 
