"
"Jove, what a name!"
"Not such a terrible one when you think about it," returned
Mr. Croyden. "Get to work with your brain and you can soon tell me
what it means."
"Chrysanthe----" ruminated Theo, thinking aloud. "Has it anything to
do with chrysanthemum?"
"It surely has. Go on," urged the elder man encouragingly.
"Paeonienne--I'll bet it is another flower! Peony?"
"There you have it!" came triumphantly from the china
manufacturer. "It was not half as bad as it sounded, you
see. Chrysanthemums and peonies--the two flowers almost exclusively
used as decoration on the porcelain of that particular period. So
universally was one or the other of these flowers employed, and so
individual was their treatment, that the name serves to cover one of
the oldest types of Chinese porcelain remaining to us. This porcelain
was not so beautiful, however, as some of that which follows it; the
clay or body of the ware being less fine. One can easily see that at
that time the Chinese had not perfected their art. Nevertheless it is
remarkable, and the flower designs on it most artistic."
"And what came next?" inquired Theo.
"Next we come to some other varieties of porcelains which connoisseurs
have grouped together because of their color and called
_Famille-vert_.
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