8(5 glenny's handbook 



— a hotbed for instance, or a warm kitchen or other apart- 

 ment — about the month of March, and in a few days the eyes, 

 or incipient shoot-buds, will appear ; then separate the tubers 

 into as many pieces as are wanted, with at least a sound eye 

 and tuber to each piece. These pieces may be potted and 

 placed in the greenhouse, or dwelling-house, or a common 

 frame, or any place from which frost can be excluded, and 

 they will begin growing. In potting the tubers may be 

 freely cut to lessen their size, for the convenience of using 

 moderate-sized pots. Those who want to increase their stock 

 considerably may pot the whole tubers, and put them in a 

 hotbed, and as fast as any shoots come, and are grown two 

 inches long, cut them off at the base, pot them singly in the 

 smallest-sized pots, and put them in the hotbed to strike. 

 Plants reared in either of these ways may be put in the open 

 ground about the middle of May, in the places where they 

 are to flower. They are very subject to attack from earwigs. 

 To draw these together invert small flower-pots, half filled 

 with dry moss, on the stakes to which the plants are fastened : 

 by examining these pots frequently, and shaking the entrapped 

 earwigs into scalding water, incredible numbers will be de- 

 stroyed. The plants should be six feet apart, and they must 

 be tied up as they grow, or the wind will break them down. 

 Seeds may be sow^n in March in a hotbed, and the young 

 plants potted and kept growing till the middle of May ; they 

 may then be planted in rows two feet apart in the row, and 

 three from row to row. The florists' varieties have been ob- 

 tained, by years of crossing and seed-saving, from D. variabilis, 

 and are now almost endless in variety of colour, and vary in 

 height from three to six feet. In the pronunciation of the 

 name Dahlia, the sound ah, and not ay, should be used — 

 Dahl-e-a. The other kinds of Dahlias are small tuberous- 

 rooted perennials, requiring to be protected in winter, and 

 planted out in summer in good garden soil. 



DAISY. See Bellis. 



DAMMARA. [Pinaceae.] Greenhouse evergreen shrubs, 

 or trees in their native habitats. Soil, sandy loam. In- 

 creased by cuttings or by grafting. 



DAMPIERA. [Gordeniaceae.] Greenhouse herbaceous 

 perennials. Soil, peat and loam. Increased by division. 



