314 
THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
able plant in tasteful hands for picturesque groups or 
massive edgings. 
F. subcordata .—A handsome species having heart- 
shaped leaves, slightly glaucous on the upper surface, but 
not so deeply ribbed as F. Sieboldi. It is a rapid grower, 
forming dense spreading tufts in a few years. This 
species yields many interesting varieties, the most notable 
being F. marmorata and F. argenta , two variegated 
kinds. The flowers are white, borne in slender racemes 
eighteen inches or more high. These are very desirable 
for cut-flowers, particularly in all natural arrangements. 
Florists also find them very useful in set-pieces. This 
species is the best known in our gardens, in fact, being 
the one most generally cultivated. 
THE MIKADO’S-FLOWER. 
J UST now we are nothing if we are not Japanese. 
Grosvenor Gallery atttiudes and “ greenery-yellowy ” 
gowns have been relegated to the eternal shades, to¬ 
gether with the lordly sunflower and aggressive thistle; 
we must decorate with embroideries whose crawling 
. dragons suggest a delirious dream, while our houses and 
our gowns alike must be adorned with the Mikado’s own 
flower, the many-hued chrysanthemum. We can very 
well forgive the latter craze, and wish it may prove more 
than temporary, for this flower gives us autumn’s own 
unrivalled tints in our gardens when all others are gone. 
“ When the maple turns to crimson, 
And the sassafras to gold ; 
When the gentians in the meadow 
And the aster on the wold ; 
When the noon is wrapped in vapor 
And the night is frosty cold.” 
Our own flowers have deserted us, but the sturdy 
stranger from Japan or China holds his own, undis¬ 
mayed by chill winds or even a touch of Jack Frost’s icy 
fingers. 
The chrysanthemum—-literally golden flower—belongs 
to the Composite, an order which furnishes so many 
showy autumn flowers of the sunflower type. Our plant 
was introduced to European gardeners some two cen¬ 
turies ago, being first brought to Holland from Japan 
under the name of Matricaria. However, so much dis¬ 
cussion arose as to whether it was properly a matri- 
caria, an anthemis or an artemisia, that a new family 
was set apart, under the name of Chrysanthemum. It is 
probable that the first form introduced was the single 
variety, as the double form is undoubtedly the result of 
cultivation, which has so changed the primordial form 
that the founder of the family would have much difficulty 
in recognizing his descendants. The essential form of 
the Japanese is a wild, ragged, fiuffy-looking flower, while 
the Chinese is very regular and globular in shape. The 
pompons, or button-shaped, were introduced by Robert 
Fortune in 1845, being known as “ Chusan daisies.” 
Then we have the anemone-flowered type, whose name 
explains itself, and the marguerite form, strikingly like the 
real Paris daisy, but possessing more substance. The 
range of color is most extensive, especially among the 
yellows, sulphur, golden, chrome, amber, buff, with count¬ 
less variations of tint, some wonderfully aesthetic reds 
and red-browns, soft mauve and dazzling snowy white. 
But there is one color missing ; we want Mr. Thorpe, 
who is a veritable wizard where chrysanthemums are 
concerned, ho^wave^his _jnagic*wand*and produce us a 
real salmon pink without a tinge of mauve. After close 
scrutiny of two great chrysanthemum shows the writer 
is unable to find such a color. Mauves there are and 
pale terra-cotta, and even a rosy red nearly approaching 
the color of Nymphcea devoniensis, but there is not one 
real “ Simon-pure ” pink, though described as such. 
After the wonderful possibilities suggested by the re¬ 
cent shows in New York and Philadelphia, of course 
every woman who had the pleasure of seeing those mag¬ 
nificent prize plants is seized with a longing to go and do 
likewise, and really there is no very great difficulty in the 
way, for the chrysanthemum is equally at home in a 
roomy country garden or a cramped city area-way. And 
what a mass of beauty it makes of a small balcony or 
window. A well-known Chestnut street restaurant in 
Philadelphia has its window filled with these plants, 
making a glowing mass of red and yellow. 
The culture is simple in the extreme. The young 
plants may be set out in April or May. When the strong 
shoots are about six inches long they may be pinched 
short until July, when they should be allowed to grow. 
The buds begin to form in August and September. If 
they are wanted for decoration indoors, the plants may 
be taken up early in October and potted or placed in 
boxes. After they have done flowering they may be cut 
down and the pots or boxes placed in a light cellar or 
outhouse, where they are protected from the extreme 
rigor of the winter.- If planted out they may be covered 
slightly, though in most cases the snow is sufficient pro¬ 
tection. The older sorts are usually perfectly hardy, 
some of the newer ones seeming more tender from high 
cultivation. Of course the climate of their native habitat 
is similar to our own. 
The most attractive habit of this plant is undoubtedly 
its natural bushy form, though some of the standards are 
very handsome. They are grafted on single stalks, like 
standard roses. At the New York show much interest 
was excited by standards about ten feet high, with four 
or six distinct sorts and colors grafted on the one stem; 
a feat never before performed out of Japan, as the grower 
proudly told us. The effect was most extraordinary, like 
a vari-colored bouquet “ all a-growing and a-blowing.” 
The Japanese are very clever at all these horticultural 
freaks—oddities of grafting, variegating, and especially 
dwarfing. The writer recollects of having seen in the 
Japanese exhibit at the Centennial Exhibition a pine-tree 
three feet in height, said to be more than one thousand 
years old ; though flourishing, it had a gnarled, seamed 
and discontented expression, which gave one the idea 
