218 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



ing that what we have to say must be said at once. Deferring, therefore, 

 till next month siich particulars as wc may think it necessary to add to 

 this notice, let us at once assure our readers that the conveyance of the 

 southern flowers to a distance from London did not prevent the southern 

 tweezers going with them. There were so many evidences on every hand 

 of skilful manipulation, that wc began to wish the dalilia altogether 

 extinguished — blotted out from our lists of exhibition flowers— because 

 it offers itself as an inviting subject for fingers accustomed to falsify. 

 Hard-ej'ed flowers were there as perfect as if modelled in Avax ; and persons 

 unaccustomed to comparisons of a critical kind would pronounce them 

 models of excellence, and so they were, but they were not grown so. 

 Some had been allowed to blow nearly out, for the sake of centres, and, 

 by dint of clever treatment, were well up in the crown, and altogether 

 respectable, until lifted out of their tubes, and then they could tell their 

 own stories as truthfully as people who wear cork limbs do when stripped. 

 As to coloui', wc noted many, especially among the tipped and fancies, 

 that were models of beauty and regularity ; and if they had had the gift 

 of speech, wc would have asked them who arranged their petals ? — ^how 

 long did it take to remove the faulty ones ?- — and how many such flowers 

 were there left on the plants they came from ? "We have not the slightest 

 objection to the dressing of flowers, to any extent that patient amateurs 

 and persevering nurseiymen may choose to carry it, provided the dressing 

 is acknowledged, and the unwary purchaser put upon, his guard against 

 risks, and directed safely to certainties. This time last year, we called 

 attention to the dressing of chrysanthemums, and had the satisfaction of 

 seeing the subject immediately taken up by two influential horticultural 

 journals, and at several of the shows — the Crystal Palace, and tbf I'ast 

 London especially — flowers were shown as cut from the plant, a:. a with 

 foliage attached, as additional attestation of their genuineness. "We 

 believe the public only need to have pointed out to them the consequences 

 that inevitably follow from this system of " gilding refined gold," to 

 demand that the metal shall be shown in its native excellence, or if embel- 

 lished to suit the whim of an artificial taste, that the itntouched virgin 

 lump shall stand beside it for comparison. Let it be imderstood, then, by 

 all novices who make up lists from flowers shown on exhibition tables, 

 that, as long as the present system of tampering with dahlias is allowed, 

 the buyer has no guarantee that the plant he purchases will reward him 

 with the excellencies it professed to possess when he first became en- 

 chanted with it. When fairly understood, an evil of this sort must work 

 its own cure. If the public— who, after all, are the real customers, how 

 much soever raisers may depend on the trade for custom in the first 

 instance — if the public once adopt a thorough Scotch caution, the trade 

 in novelties will fall ofi^, and will have to be recovered by honest means. 

 Dressed flowers may be shown to the end of time. AVe shall praise the 

 man who can di'ess them best ; but he must join us in the acknowledg- 

 ment that they are di'essed, and, the secresy being at end, we can have 

 no ground for charging him with moral obliquity. 



It may be asked how it is that the horticultural journals have so long 

 winked at the practice ? and thence argued, that as they make no com- 

 plaint, that therefore it cannot be. We reply, that it is sufficient for 

 us if the fact be a fact, to stigmatize it as a baneful fact, and let the public 

 profit thereby. It may be, that certain commercial interests stand iix the 



