size. The plants thus treated are cultivated under glass, and copiously manured in order to give them great vigor. Flowers have Fig. 1.—Bouquet of Chrysanthemums. been thus produced measuring not less than twenty centimetres in diameter (Fig. 2). Assiduous care is given to all the details in raising these flowers. The petals are fashioned by hand, and are given the desired curvature, and put in determined positions by the aid of ivory pincers. A single flower thus produced will bring from two to four shillings.

The effort to produce such exaggerated specimens can, however, not be regarded as a well-directed one. Overgrown flowers lose in beauty, and extreme regularity of shape is obtained at the expense of grace, and of the great charm of the flower, which lies chiefly in an unexpected novelty of form, and the special stamp of Fig. 2.—Large Chrysanthemums (reduced). originality that gives each blossom an expression of its own. We might as well make them out of paper at once as treat them so that they shall all be alike.

The November chrysanthemum exhibitions of the horticultural societies are growing in importnace. The superb plants that are now shown at them are counted by the thousand. The house of Levêque, which obtained the chief prize at a recent exhibition of the National Horticultural Society of France, had six hundred distinct varieties.

Europeans are not alone in their admiration of beautiful flowers. Some other people, having a fine artistic taste, entertain an enthusiasm for them that