_To the Editor._
Sir,--While the praises of our wild, native, simple flowers, the
primrose, the violet, the blue bell, and daisy, as well as the blossoms
of the hawthorn, wild rose, and honey-suckle, have been said and sung in
many a pleasant bit of prose and verse in the pages of your
extra-ordinary _Every-Day Book_, as connected with the lively
descriptions given therein of many a rural sport and joyous pastime,
enjoyed by our forefathers and foremothers of the “olden time,”
particularly in that enlivening and mirth-inspiring month, sweet May;
when both young and old feel a renovation of their health and spirits,
and hail the return of sunshine, verdure, and flowers; permit me to call
the attention of such of your readers as are fond of flowers (and there
is no one, who has “music in his soul” and a taste for poetry, that is
not) to that highly interesting plant, the Indian Chrysanthemum, which
serves, by its gay blossoms, to cheer the gloom, and enliven the sadness
of those dreary months, November and December.
Since the introduction of the Camellia and the Dahlia, I know of no
plant that produces so striking an effect upon the sight as the
Chrysanthemum. We have now about forty distinct varieties of it in the
country, for the greater part of which we are indebted to the London
Horticultural Society. Many of the flowers are much larger than the
largest full-blown Provence rose, highly aromatic, and of extremely
bright, vivid, and varied colours; as white, yellow, copper, red, and
purple, of all the different gradations of tint, and several of those
colours mixed and blended. Some very fine specimens of this flower have
been exhibited at the society’s rooms and greenhouse. Nothing, in my
opinion, could equal their beauty and splendour; not even the well-known
collection of carnations and foreign picotées of my neighbour, Mr. Hogg,
the florist.
This flower gives a very gay appearance to the conservatory and the
greenhouse at this season of the year, when there is hardly another in
blossom; and it may also be introduced into the parlour and
drawing-room; for it flowers freely in small sized pots of forty-eight
and thirty-two to the cast, requires no particular care, is not
impatient of cold, and is easily propagated by dividing the roots, or by
cuttings placed under a hand-glass in the months of May or June, which
will bloom the following autumn, for it is prodigal of its flowers; the
best method is to leave only one flowering stem in a pot.
The facility with which it is propagated will always make the price
moderate, and render it attainable by any one; there is much
dissimilarity in the form of the flowers, as well as in the formation of
the petals--some flowers are only half spread, and have the appearance
of tassels, while others are expanded fully, like the Chinese aster;
some petals are quilled, some half quilled, some are flat and
lanceolated, some crisped and curled, and others are in an imbricated
form, decreasing in length towards the centre. There is also some
variation in their time of flowering, some come much earlier than
others.
This plant is not a stranger to the country, for it was introduced about
thirty-five years ago; but the splendid varieties, of which I am
speaking, are new, having been brought hither, mostly from China, by the
Horticultural Society within these four or five years; and as the
society has made a liberal distribution of plants and cuttings to the
different nurserymen and florists round London, who are members thereof,
they can now be easily obtained. There is little chance of its ever
ripening its seed, from its coming into flower at the commencement of
winter, so that we can only look for fresh varieties from India or
China.
In conclusion, I will just note down a few that particularly engaged my
attention, namely:--
The pure or large paper white.
The large white, with yellow tinged flowerets, or petals round the disk
or centre.
The early blush.
The golden lotus.
The superb clustered yellow.
The starry purple.
The bright red, approaching to scarlet.
And the brown, red, and purple blended.