84 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
July  26,  1895. 
Chrysanthemums  of  Japan. 
The  above  is  the  title  of  a  large-sized  folio  book,  recently  published 
by  a  Mr.  Ogawa  at  Tokio,  in  Japan.  The  work  consists  of  a  series  of 
plates  representing  the  Chrysanthemum  in  a  variety  of  forms,  and 
instead  of  being  produced  in  the  ordinary  way  the  plates  are  very  beauti¬ 
fully  executed  under  the  Collotype  process.  There  are  three  large  views 
of  Chrysanthemum  plants  growing  under  cover,  the  back  and  sides  of 
the  structures  being  composed  of  matting,  and  the  roofs  either  wholly 
of  glass,  or  else  partly  glass  and  matting.  Two  plates  depict  trained 
plants  with  a  large  number  of  blooms,  each  growing  in  curiously  shaped 
pots,  while  the  remaining  illustrations  are  small-sized  flowers  of  the 
Japanese  type,  in  which,  as  is  usual  with  Japanese  pictures  of  Chrys¬ 
anthemums,  a  portion  of  the  stem  and  foliage  is  given.  These  do  not 
exhibit  evidence  of  very  high  cultivation,  for  the  foliage  is  small  and 
the  stems  rather  weakly.  There  is  no  letterpress  explanatory  of  the 
plates,  but  the  title  of  the  book  and  the  names  of  the  flowers  are  printed 
in  English.  The  appearance  of  this  work  is  but  another  reminder  of  the 
large  additions  that  are  being  made  to  the  bibliography  of  a  popular 
flower.  At  least  twenty  new  books  on  the  Chrysanthemum  have  been 
published  abroad  during  the  past  four  or  flve  years,  and  several  others 
in  the  same  period  have  been  issued  in  this  country. 
Popular  Chrysanthemums  in  America. 
The  opinions  of  English  and  American  Chrysanthemum  specialists 
diflEer  so  greatly  as  to  the  relative  value  of  varieties  for  show  purposes 
that  I  am  tempted  to  extract  from  the  American  “  Chrysanthemum 
Annual  ”  a  list  of  the  best  varieties  that  are  given  in  an  audit  appearing 
in  that  work.  The  votes  range  from  eighteen  for  the  highest  to  three 
for  the  lowest.  They  are  Nivens,  The  Queen,  Viviand  Morel,  Eugene 
Dailledouze,  Golden  Wedding,  G.  W.  Childs,  Major  Bonnaffon,  President 
W.  R.  Smith,  W.  H.  Lincoln,  Ivory,  Harry  Balsley,  Maud  Dean,  Miss 
Minnie  Wanamaker,  Mrs.  E.  G.  Hill,  Mrs.  Jerome  Jones,  H.  L. 
Sunderbruch,  Mrs.  A.  J.  Drexel,  Colonel  W.  B.  Smith,  Domination, 
Harry  May,  Kioto,  Mrs.  C.  Lippincott,  Yellow  Queen.  The  last  six  each 
obtained  the  same  number  of  votes — viz.,  three. 
Compared  with  the  audit  instituted  by  the  Journal  of  Horticulture 
early  in  the  year  this  selection  will  show  some  curious  variations.  Chas. 
Davis,  which  ranks  high  in  that  list,  is  not  mentioned  at  all  in  the 
American  audit,  although  the  variety  has  been  well  spoken  of  by 
American  growers.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Mdlle.  Th^rese  Rey  and 
Edwin  Molyneux.  Mrs.  C.  Harman  Payne,  G.  C.  Schwabe,  Sunflower, 
Mdlle.  Marie  Hoste,  President  Borel,  Etoile  de  Lyon,  Miss  Dorothea 
Shea,  Stanstead  White,  Louise,  and  many  others,  are  all  conspicuous  by 
their  absence  in  the  American  audit. 
Deterioration  of  Chrysanthemums. 
Complaints  are  occasionally  made  that  certain  varieties  once 
popular  and  of  a  high  order  of  merit  for  exhibition  purposes  fail 
to  maintain  their  reputation  after  a  length  of  time,  and  Anally  degene¬ 
rate.  This,  as  Mr.  E.  Beckett  points  out  in  his  article  in  the  “  Chrys¬ 
anthemum  Year  Book,”  is  more  conspicuous  in  the  Japanese  section 
than  in  the  incurved,  and  he  states  that  he  has  never  yet  heard  a  satis¬ 
factory  reason  for  it.  Belle  Paule  and  Boule  d’Or  are  indicated  as 
cases  in  point,  and  a  solution  may  possibly  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
high  feeding  is  practised  to  a  greater  extent  with  Japanese  Chrys¬ 
anthemums  than  with  the  older  section. 
A  friend  of  mine  resident  in  France,  who  knows  something  of  big 
bloom  culture,  strongly  advises  intending  growers  to  take  cuttings  from 
plants  not  subjected  to  such  a  course  of  treatment  as  is  adopted  for  the 
production  of  large  show  blooms,  but  from  plants  that  have  been 
allowed  to  grow  in  a  more  natural  method.  Plants  gorged  with  manures, 
he  says,  are  done  for  when  they  have  bloomed,  and  cannot  produce 
cuttings  fit  for  the  purpose  of  growing  fresh  plants  from.  Those  persons 
who  rely  year  after  year  for  cuttings  from  their  exhibition  plants  are 
apt  to  say  that  the  varieties  have  degenerated,  but  the  Chrysanthemum, 
he  adds  somewhat  positively,  does  not  degenerate.  If  this  be  correct 
the  remedy  would  seem  to  be  that  in  the  cases  of  first-rate  varieties 
which  are  desired  to  be  retained,  a  few  plants  should  be  put  out  in  a 
suitable  position  for  the  sole  purpose  of  providing  a  succession  of  healthy 
cuttings,  to  which  the  grower  could  have  recourse  year  by  year.  Grown 
in  a  natural  manner  they  should  be  full  of  health  and  vigour,  but  of 
course  in  the  case  of  many  growers  the  space  required  would  be  a  serious 
consideration. 
If  the  Chrysanthemum  is  a  kind  of  dyspeptic  subject,  whose  consti¬ 
tution  gets  undermined  by  high  living,  and  there  seems  to  be  but  little 
doubt  that  this  is  so,  those  cultivators  who  desire  to  keep  up  a  healthy 
stock  of  certain  favourite  sorts  may  find  the  above  suggestion 
helpful. 
A  French  Chrysanthemum  Society. 
To  many  English  growers  of  Chrysanthemums,  but  especially  to 
those  who  know  to  what  a  large  extent  the  French  raisers  have  con¬ 
tributed  to  enrich  our  show-boards  for  the  past  twenty  years  it  will  be  ' 
a  matter  for  surprise  to  learn  that  there  is  still  no  such  thing  in  France 
as  a  Chrysanthemum  society.  Exhibitions  of  the  flower  have,  of  course, 
been  held  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  but  they  are  seldom  held  for 
more  than  two  or  three  years  in  succession  in  the  same  place,  and  are 
always  held  under  the  auspices  of  a  local  horticultural  society. 
In  an  excellent  article,  chiefly  devoted  to  the  Calvat  race  of  Chrys¬ 
anthemums,  by  Mr.  H.  Fatzer,  which  appears  in  the  current  number  of 
the  “  Revue  Horticole  ”  of  Paris,  reference  is  made  to  the  time  being 
ripe  for  some  kind  of  organisation  being  established  that  shall  under¬ 
take  work  resembling  that  carried  on  by  the  N.C.S.  here.  The  writer 
is  competent  to  deal  with  the  subject — firstly,  because  he  is  one  of  the 
leading  growers  in  France;  secondly,  because  he  has  an  excellent 
knowledge  of  what  is  being  done  in  England  and  America  concerning 
the  popular  flower  ;  and  lastly,  perhaps  because  he  is  thus  able  to  form 
an  accurate  idea  of  the  confusion  which  is  caused  by  the  non-existence 
of  some  central  body  to  supervise  questions  of  syonymy,  classification, 
and  nomenclature,  which  must,  under  present  circumstances,  be  con¬ 
stantly  arising  in  his  country. 
Almost  every  year,  and  our  importers  and  trade  growers  will  readily 
confirm  what  I  say,  new  Chrysanthemums  have  been  sent  out  by  the 
French  growers  bearing  names  that  they  themselves  have  used  over  and 
over  again  ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  this  can  be  avoided,  as  the 
growers  live  widely  apart,  and  more  often  than  not  can  have  but  little 
knowledge  of  what  their  confreres  are  doing.  On  this  subject  alone 
private  protest  and  public  remonstrance  in  the  press  seem  to  be  of  no 
avail,  and  so  our  catalogues  become  crowded  with  numberless  instances 
of  different  varieties  bearing  the  same  name  or  names  so  closely 
resembling  one  another  that  the  differences  are  scarcely  perceptible. 
Fortunately  many  of  these  double  named  Chrysanthemums  die  out, 
or  else  never  travel  beyond  the  introducer’s  nursery,  but  if  the  leading 
French  growers  could  only  be  persuaded  to  assemble  and  form  a  society 
which  should  have  for  its  object  among  other  things  the  registration  of 
new  seedlings,  a  good  work  would  be  done,  and  one  that  would  be 
beneficial  both  to  seller  and  buyer. 
Mr.  Fatzer  advocates  a  floral  committee  composed  of  experts  to 
whom  novelties  should  be  submitted  for  certificates,  as  with  us.  He 
also  suggests  that  shows  should  be  held  by  this  new  body,  to  all  of 
which,  and  much  more  beside,  it  is  hoped  the  French  Chrysanthemum 
growers  will  give  their  best  consideration. 
So  long  as  some  such  committee  or  society  is  non-existent,  so  long 
France,  in  my  opinion,  is  failing  to  do  justice  to  her  great  name  in 
horticulture.  Great  as  it  is,  she  ought  never  to  forget  that  the  famous 
autumn  flower  which  is  so  largely  cultivated  in  England  and  in  English 
colonies  has  contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  popularise  the  names  of 
many  of  her  most  capable  and  intelligent  of  florists. — P. 
BUDDLEIA  COLVILLEI. 
This  most  beautiful  Himalayan  Buddleia  (fig.  12)  was  introduced 
by  seeds  some  fourteen  years  ago  from  its  native  country  by  Messrs. 
J.  Veitch  &  Sons,  from  whom  I  received  two  plants  about  twelve  years 
ago,  one  of  which  I  planted  against  a  brick  wall  in  my  kitchen  garden, 
the  other  I  gave  to  my  next-door  neighbour.  I  believe  the  frost  killed 
all  Messrs.  Veitch’s  plants  several  years  ago,  as  unfortunately  this  fine 
shrub  will  not  stand  more  than  about  28°  or  29°  of  frost  with  impunity. 
My  specimen  bloomed  for  the  first  time  in  the  summer  of  1892,  when 
it  produced  six  bunches  at  the  extremities  of  the  strongest  shoots.  Two 
of  these  were  drawn  in  water  colours  by  a  lady  artist  friend,  and  were 
most  accurately  and  beautifully  reproduced  in  the  Paris  ”  Revue  Hor¬ 
ticole”  of  16th  November,  1893.  It  has  also  been  figured  in  “  L’lllus- 
tration  Horticole  ”  of  Brussels.  On  the  4th  and  5th  of  January,  1894, 
we  had  the  severest  frost  by  6°  I  ever  remember,  when  the  thermo¬ 
meter  stood  at  .3°,  or  29°  of  frost.  This  killed  all  the  outside  branches, 
and  caused  all  the  leaves  even  on  the  main  stem  to  blacken  and  drop 
off.  My  experience,  however,  shows  me  that  when  a  frost  is  not  severe 
enough  to  kill  a  plant  outright  it  does  it  good,  and  in  proof  of  this  the 
shoots  and  new  branches  sent  out  by  this  Buddleia  during  the  summer 
and  autumn  of  1894  were  much  longer  and  more  vigorous  than  ever 
before,  some  of  them  measuring  5^  feet  in  length. 
It  did  not  bloom  either  in  1893  or  1894,  nor  did  I  expect  it  would 
again  do  so  till  we  had  a  very  hot  and  dry  season  to  thoroughly  ripen 
the  young  wood,  and  this  we  certainly  had  not  last  summer  ;  yet  to  my 
great  surprise  the  shrub  bloomed  profusely  during  last  May  and  June, 
producing  over  forty  bunches  of  its  beautiful  pale  rose-coloured  tubular 
flowers  with  a  white  throat.  This  shrub  was  first  figured  by  Sir  Joseph 
Hooker  in  “  Himalayan  Plants  ”  from  drawings  taken  on  its  native 
mountains  ;  but  the  colour  of  the  flower  does  not  at  all  agree  with  that 
of  my  plant. — W.  E.  Gumbleton. 
NOTES  FROM  AN  IRISH  GARDEN. 
• 
Amongst  the  Roses,  now  passing  the  zenith  of  their  glory,  on  trellis, 
bower,  and  bed,  traits  of  the  season  are  markedly  conspicuous  ;  some 
we  seldom  see  in  perfection  have  given  of  their  best,  whilst  others  have 
