HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144667, 29 April 1915, Page 4

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW. A BEAUTIFUL DISPLAY. The annual Chrysanthemum Show tinder the auspices ol the New Plymouth Horticultural Society is being hold at the Good Templar Hall to-day, and a really beautiful display ol blooms has been gathered together. THE FLOWER : ITS HISTORY. A brief history of the chrysanthemum will no doubt prove of interest. It is essentially a flower of evolution, and was cultivated ill its ennobled and highly developed form in the East, notably in China and Japan, for generations before its introduction into F.urope. Originally it was popularly known as a “single"’ flower of daisy-like form, about an inch across, but eventually developed into what are called “doubles, ’ with blooms over a trot in diameter by the extension of the florets. There are still so-called “doillde ’ and ‘"single” chrysanthemums. Tho term is expiessive and convenient, though botanicnlly incorrect. 'I he flowers of the original wild species are like the common held daisy in structure. The cent nil cushion or disc teapituluml consists of a number of short, tubular. closely-paeki d seed-pro-ducing f'.urcls, with a sun out.ding margin of much longer ray florets —not petals—each also with a seed; therefore. what are known a.s "'double"' blooms tire really a number of single flow ers, paeki d closely t ogether on one stem. No perfectly doillde flowers ol any kind are capable of producing seed. The chrysanthemum was described by Hay in 1101 as Matricaria, also under its notice name of Lioui-pu. I,lumens, in IV.jli. placed it as a distinct species, giving it the name of Chrysanthemum I nil itti in. which it still retains. It was cult it tiled ill England in 17UI by Philip Miller, in the garden of the Apothecaries* Company, at Chelsea, and one of the plants was presented by him in that year to the Royal Society, in aeeordiiiiee with the tvlil of Sir Hans Slomio.

ch ineso variel ic's were ini rodneed into France in 17S f ). and in the follow - ing year neve brought into ICnghmd ; but it was not until eight new varieties were introduced by Sir Kreran! Home and .Mr. Kvnns. idiom the year 180 s, ;uui seventeen more followed between tben and 18'ifl. Unit ilie (lower became popular, and established in onr tlorists's lists. -Mr. Fortune says of the elirysantbeinniu in the early days;—

“It is everybody’s plum, blooming alike in the garden of the lowly cottages’as in that of the blue-buttoned mandarin.” The first European seedlings were raised in France in' 182 d. Air. Salter, an English nurseryman, subsequently established a nursery there, mid raised more, including the famous incurved variety, of England. in 184!). the seed ripening better there than in England.

lu l*4G .Mr. Kortune brought from Chinn two plants, bearing small double daisy-like blooms, ami called them

“liimpiilians." ■ Othei varieties won? misod from them in France. u> which thi* name ‘’pompom” was given i»y tho populace, from their fancied rose m bianco to the knobs on French soldiers’ raps, and it remains to tin's day. Of Urn rinco-spurned, but. lons mmco cmnmnn.lingiy pupninr -I iq.nrcsc vnnctios, -Mr. Forums, in ISiil. introduced seven distinct .sorts, widely different from all others then in cultivation in Knropo. The Honors wore small and shapeless, though rich in cnlouis; hut open too Into lor (lower shows. Still, they found a few friends, and it was soon discovered that under sound cultivation tho hloonis increased in sire and developed earlier. We may fjivo our Continental friends credit for raising now varieties; hut for triumphs in their development Britain undoubtedly led, and still loads the way. The .Japanese chrysanthemum is, when fully developed, magnificent. Mr. ,1. H. Voitch. in his sumptuous \vork, modestly entitled, "A Traveller’s Notes," describes the chrysanthemum as grown in the late Mikado’s private collection. One specimen was trained in tho form of a four-sided pyramid, on a square base. Tho bottom row of blooms on each side of the square was Win. above tho tub in which the plant was grown, or four rows of fifty largo blooms. Other tiers rose above them, until the pyramid terminated in a single bloom at tho npox, or 150 blooms on the plant—a marvel in cultivation and training.

Tho Japanese do more. They grow numbers of small plants in suitable colours, and insert them in fertilised moss in wire skeletons, and thus represent full-sized men, animals, or whatever other shapes may ho required to represent historical scenes.. As tho flowers fade, they arc removed, and fresh small plants inserted, so that these Horn! displays continue for weeks. They are attended by thousands of visitors, who enjoy for hours tho narratives thus florally provided. Tnny tho Japs arc a wonderful people, and Britishers are unlikely to emulate their ways in tho land of tho chrysanthemum.