DECEMBER. 359 



wanted. With these ideas in my mind, it follows that I differ con- 

 siderably from the writer in last month's Florist in my estimation of 

 the order in which the Dahlias of 1855 deserve to be placed. If 1 were 

 called upon now to place them, 1 should certainly as-sign them very 

 different positions from those in which I located them in the Florist 

 for November last, two months before the compilation of the " tabular 

 list." I should be disposed almost to reverse the places of some of 

 them, and should have no hesitation in enumerating the best six Dahlias 

 of the season in the following order : — 



1. Lord Palmerston. 



2. Colouel Windham. 



3. Eclipse. 



4. Grand Sultan. 



5. Lollipop. 



6. Miss Burdett Coutts. 



Lord Palmerston I consider one of the noblest flowers ever intro- 

 duced. I fully concur in the opinion that " there is no Dahlia to equal 

 it in habit," &c. In forming our estimate of a Dahlia, we should not, I 

 think, dwell too much upon the possession of isolated "points." It should 

 be considered as a whole. I admit that there is no one property, taken 

 singly, in which Lord Palmerston is not beaten by some individual flower 

 or other; but I contend that for the possession of a// the desirable qualities 

 in a marked degree, it surpasses any Dahlia sent out last spring. The 

 same remarks apply, with some modification, to Colonel Windham and 

 Eclipse, which I place second and third, respectively. Grand Sultan 

 is not so constant as the first three, but sufficiently so to afford a fair 

 chance of a good bloom, on any given day, to the grower who manages 

 his plant judiciously, more particularly with reference to disbudding. 

 Lollipop and Miss Burdett Coutts exhibit glaring faults, each in its own 

 way. Perhaps it is not too much to assert that the latter is indebted 

 to its constancy alone for being able to hold its place. I do not deny 

 that Lollipop is the most popular flower of the batch. Let the fact be 

 granted. Still popularity is no proof of excellence : and I am desirous 

 to draw attention to what it is, rather than what people believe it to be. 

 In every respect save one, I am ready to allow supremacy to this 

 variety ; but its defect of petal is too conspicuous to permit me to place 

 it in the first rank. I fancy I recognise in it the type of a progeny 

 which may exhibit all the virtues, without the one vice of their parent. 

 In Miss Burdett Coutts a fault of an opposite character prevails. The 

 petals are faultless taken per se, but produced in scanty numbers : 

 hence the interstices between them, which give a jagged or milled 

 appearance to the circumference of the flower. Yet, with all this, its con- 

 stancy and telliijg appearance in a stand will, in all probability, suffice 

 to keep it in cultivation until a better formed flower of the same colour 

 shall have usurped its place. I am not sure that I should be doing 

 justice in omitting to enumerate Captain Ingram as a flower worthy of 

 commendation. . 



But what of the rest? Are such varieties as Bessie, Perfection, 

 Mrs. Wheeler, and Duchess of Wellington to be utterly and unpardon- 

 ably condemned ? By no means. Give them a further term of pro- 

 bation. There is no doubt that, at their best, they are more beautiful 

 than those I have selected. The rarity with which they don their best 



