$32 CULTIVATION OF THE DAHLIA, 



ing the luxuriance of the herbage, their flowers way bt 

 brought to perfection, even in situations the most exposed 



Caution. to autumnal frosts. I have only one caution to give, which 



is, that in whatever soil they are planted, but especially if 

 it is poor and gravelly, they must be duly watered in dry 

 weather, till the flower bud can juft be discovered in the 

 heart of the leaves ; after which they will require none what- 

 ever. Insects do not appear to attack them much, except 



Earwigs, the ear' wig, and for this I know no remedy but personal 



labour in catching and destroying them: that their numbers 

 and consequent havoc however may be wonderfully dimi- 

 nished in the course of a few years, by moderate exertions, 

 I have twice experienced. 



2d and 3d spe- T/he seeds of the second and third species, dahlia sphon~ 

 dyliifolia, and bidenti folia, were also sent along with those 



Their intro- of the first, from Madrid, in May, 1804, by the Right Hon. 



uction. Lady Holland: but one plant of the dahlia sphondy Hi folia 



had been previously introduced from Paris, by E. J. A. 



Woodford, Esq., and flowered in his garden at Vauxhall in 



Specific names, the autumn of 1803. The same seasons for which I have 

 changed the specific names of the first species oblige me to 

 offer new ones for these two. Cavanilles' names are actu- 

 ally false: for no variety of the second has yet been seen 

 with rosecoloured florets, or of the third with scarlet; so 

 that on this account Dr. Sims has very justly hesitated to 

 quote him in the Botanical Magazine; and a yellow variety 

 having since been introduced, it is become doubly objec- 



These more tionable. Both these species are more tender and flower 

 later than the first, so that they require with us every help 



Management, which art can give to forward them in spring. The best 

 method I can suggest, and which succeeded at Mill Hill, is 

 to keep them always in pots, except a plant is wanted to be 

 much branched for making cuttings. After the first day of 

 April, accelerate their growth in a very airy frame, exposed 

 as much as possible to the light, but with very little or no 

 bottom heat from dung; and about the middle of June 

 plunge the pots close to a south east or south wail I, nailing 

 'up the branches as they shoot. All the secondary branches 

 should be pinched off while tender, with the finger and 

 •thumb* and even -their principal leaves partly cut off, if the 



plants 



