During November we rarely have any daylight, and by a peculiar and blessed dispensation, for which God be praised, a good show of chrysanthemums presents a magnificent appearance under gaslight, and at all our London exhibitions there is more money taken and consequently more company present at a show during one hour after 6 P. m., than during all the pre-vious hours of the same day. At the present time there are in London no less than twenty societies formed and maintained expressly for the representation of the chrysanthemum, and many of those who love the flower put business aside when the season of display recurs, and go from show to show and from garden to garden inspecting, criticising, joking, and winding up with a "bit of dinner," at the house of one of the fancy, or at Borne hostelry, such as the Rochester, where chrysanthemum growers are wont to congregate. It would follow as a matter of course, that many English towns would be stimulated by the example of the metropolis, and consequently the queen of the autumn has received formal homage in every one of our great trading centers, so that it may with truth be said that chrysanthemum societies abound in the land. In two of their number the institution has attained to an extensive development.

Bristol is great in chrysanthemums, but Liverpool is greater. In fact our great Lancashire trading port has outstripped the Metropolis in the production of one annual exhibition, which in artistic finish and splendor, in completeness and extent, far surpasses any one of the London shows, but then Liverpool customary has but one exhibition and London has twenty.

It is necessary now to refer to one who in his day exercised an enormous influence in the popularizing of this flower, not simply as a cultivator and an artist, but as a true philanthropist, who never wearied in the noble endeavor to win the working classes from a love of debasing pleasures to pursuits that ennoble and domesticate and cheer the heart of man. Dear old Samuel Broome! Please God, I shall never forget him. For four and thirty years he occupied the post of head gardener to the honorable society of the Inner Temple, and exerted himself far beyond the ordinary obligations of his office in making the great city garden of the temple lawyers a place of renown in the annals of English horticulture. He, too, was a typical Anglo, but not so fine a man in physique as James. He had but one arm, but he had two good eyes and a pair of rosy cheeks and a merry pair of twinkling eyes and a perpetually pleased expression of homely content. He was a persistent button-holder. Let him get hold of you and your day was gone. He was one of the home-spun sort, rich in anecdote, heavily charged with experiences of man and things, a keen observer, and a rustic wit withal. Dear old Broome, the grave has but lately closed over his remains, but his works do follow him.

Some fifteen years ago, when voyaging up the river Thames, Broome saw in the gardens of Messrs. Colville, an unwonted display of flowers, on a bleak November day. His curiosity was aroused, and he began to inquire. The result was a grand fit of chrysanthemum fever, which lasted to the day of his death, but never hurt him.

He took to growing the chrysanthemum, of course, and established in the temple gardens an annual exhibition, free to all comers, enjoying from the first the liberal support of his employees in this ministration to public enjoyment. The temple gardens have probably contributed much more toward the present popularity of the chrysanthemum than the competitive exhibitions; or if not, they have at least contributed largely, and Broome was perpetually going about stirring up the people, making curious homely speeches in school rooms, and taking plants and flowers with him to show the folks how they should be grown. At the risk of being prolix, I must here say that there are in London two haunts of lawyers known as "Temples," and in the garden of the middle temple Mr, Dale has, for many years past, provided a public display of quite a different character to that of Broome. The last-named veteran had a long order, filled with the finest show varieties, all correctly labeled and covered in, when in flower, with canvass sides and a glass roof.

But Mr. Dale treated the plant as a strictly out-door or parterre subject, and won golden opinions by his gigantic masses of pompones and his great sweeping orders of large and small varieties mixed indiscriminately and allowed to weather all storms, so that in the event of an early frost his display might collapse at the instant of expected triumph; but in a genial season it outshone Broome's by its vastness and splendor and that peculiar charm which all flowers have when displayed in the open air with surroundings of green turf and trees still leafy, though deeply tinged with their autumnal colors. Friend Dale is hale, and tall and strong; may heaven preserve him to us long. We used to meet as three to judge at shows here, there, everywhere; now we meet as two, and the tears tremble in our eyes as we shake hands in the exhibition tent, for we cannot do so without missing one of the most genial florists and generous hearted of men.

The annual displays in the Temple Gardens have exercised enormous influence in extending the sphere of the cultivation of the chrysanthemum. The London exhibitions, by societies, have done their part. The best house displays are in the gardens of thriving tradesmen, who grow collections and contribute to the exhibitions as competitors. It would not be fair to you to give particulars of these private collections, because this story must have an end, but I should do wrong to history were I to omit mention of two special exhibitions of a semi-public nature which have co-operated with others in fostering and improving the taste for this flower. In the very early days of chrysanthemum growing, Mr. John Salter, of Hammersmith, devoted himself to the raising of new varieties as a trade enterprise. When he began there might have been five and twenty sorts in cultivation, mostly importations from China. When he left off in 1869, there must have been - how many? I do not know, for I write this in a place far removed from my books and cannot refer to his catalogue for data. But I know that before I broke up my collection I had about three hundred varieties, and since then about fifty, mostly of the Japanese tasselled class, have been introduced.