Dahlias. 107 



and not the form that gave the point to the comparison in the 

 first place, and we now have a very great variety of colors in that 

 form — colors that do not necessarily remind one of cacti. The 

 white variety Mrs. A. Peart (Fig. 24), has a form very similar to 

 that of the brilliant red cactus dahlia pictured in 1879. The 

 The cactus type has been kept quite pure, and of late years it has 

 also been modified into some of the loose and flowing forms of the 

 Japanese chrysanthemums. The cactus dahlias have also been 

 crossed with specimens of the old ball type, and there have resulted 

 such new forms as that of Wvt. Agnew (Fig. 30), which may be 

 taken as one type of a class that is sometimes called the semi-cactus. 

 Whether the variety Miss May Lonias (Fig. 25), has any of the 

 cactus blood in it (I had almost written ichor, for I believe it is 

 an element of immortal youth), I cannot say. The rays are still 

 short, and show the creases of the old strait-jacket, but on the 

 whole, the outlines are considerably relaxed and softened. It 

 would be puzzling to explain off-hand how such a form as that of 

 Gra7id Diike Alexis (Fig. 26) may have arisen. This may look 

 somewhat curious and mathematical in print, but in the living 

 flower it has a peculiar charm and grace. I should like to see a 

 whole set of dahlias of this form through the whole range of 

 colors. In this case, there is no chrysanthemum that I know of 

 quite like it. We have not attained as yet such freedom of form 

 as is expressed in the tangled mass of golden threads known as 

 the chrysanthemum Mrs. W. H, Ra7id, nor the serpentine grace 

 in the long slender, writhing petals oi Medusa, 



The rays only have been developed in the case of the dahlia 

 and the disc-flowers entirely neglected. The bewildering variety 

 of forms in the chrysanthemums have their origin in two elements, 

 the ray and the disc-flower. The chrysanthemum Northern 

 Lights is composed entirely of very long slender tubes which are 

 arranged in a loose, whorled fashion (see Bulletin 112, Fig. 94). 

 It will be many years doubtless before the short, yellow disc- 

 flowers of the single dahlia can be drawn out to so great a length. 

 But it can be done, and there is no reason in the nature of things 

 why we should not have a race of dahlias analogous to the ane- 

 mone-flowered chrysanthemums, one of which, Mrs. F. Gordon 

 Dexter, is figured on the title page of Bulletin 91. These effects. 



