Dahlias. 115 



by the composites amongst perennial herbs. Blue-bells and colum- 

 bines are typical inhabitants of the herbaceous border and their 

 beauty is of a different sort from the big solid ball-like dahlias. 



Dahlias as cut flowers. — While sweet peas can be picked indis- 

 criminately and put in a single vase, dahlias have such a wide 

 range of color that the flowers must be carefully sorted. This 

 adds to the fun of arranging, and gives time to look at each one 

 separately. A vase full of a single variety gives a strong and 

 pure effect. It is a great mistake to jumble all sorts and colors of 

 flowers into the same jar. The European and American ideas on 

 this subject are entirely opposed. The German idea of a bouquet 

 is too often a cluttered lot of miscellaneous flowers all huddled 

 together without regard to conflicting colors and different types of 

 beauty. Dahlias go well with nothing else. They keep fairly 

 well for about three days, and take up great quantities of water 

 through their succulent stems. Dahlia-shows can never be as 

 popular in America as they are in Europe, until there is a greater 

 variety in their forms. While the garden is the true exhibition 

 place for dahlias, where one may revel and riot in their color, the 

 dahlia-show is not to be discouraged. The large-flowering dahlias 

 are just as worthy of separate notice as so many paintings. They 

 are, in a sense, works of art and deserve to be studied individually. 

 It is, therefore, a mistake to crowd them together in a bad light. 

 Gas light particularly, deadens and falsifies the colors of flowers, 



A few words 071 color. — I made the experiment of describing all 

 the varieties this year by the aid of color charts. Kohn's color 

 chart was given a fair trial but proved unsatisfactory. The color 

 chart of F. Schuyler Mathews was very handy and helpful, although 

 Mr. Mathews employs names which may be used by artists but 

 will never be used by the flower trade. There were two fine sin- 

 gle varieties which were among the very first to bloom and had 

 flowers every day until the end of the season. One of these 

 matched the scarlet of Mr, Mathews's chart perfectly, and the 

 other was as near cardinal as petal and pigment can ever be. 

 These two varieties then became the standard for all near shades 

 of red. The same variety is often described in one catalogue as 

 scarlet and in another as crimson ; yet Mr. Mathews says there 

 are fifty easily recognizable shades between them. The standards 



