220 OBSERVATIONS ON PRIZE DAHLIAS. 



I conceive that the mischief that will arise from giving credence 

 to the foregoing remarks is such as should engage every one, who is 

 anxious to see the culture of the Dahlia promoted, in an attempt to 

 disabuse the mind of the enterprising amateur who may, in despair 

 at reading the above, relinquish every hope of attaining perfection in 

 the blooming of his plants, and at once determine him to exclude alto- 

 gether from his garden a plant, of which he is told that, to cultivate it 

 aright, will be to bedeck it in the garb of a " scarecrow," and thereby 

 unfit it even for a kitchen garden. My presuming to offer a few ob- 

 servations upon this subject is in the hope that I may induce those who 

 would be persuaded that the cultivation of the Dahlia is " a disgrace 

 to their gardens," to believe that they may still prosecute their taste in 

 the cultivation of this splendid flower, and obtain first-rate specimens, 

 and all without disfiguring their borders to a degree beyond what is 

 observable in the treatment of other plants. I will not pretend to deny 

 that Mr. Pearson has been witness to a mode of treatment similar to 

 what he speaks of; but this I will venture to assert, that such a system, 

 however well it may repay the trouble, is not the one indispensable 

 system, and that though, in his statement, there are many things which 

 the successful cultivator will naturally adopt, yet there are also many 

 things, the disuse of which will not deprive him of the possession of as 

 great a number of good blooms, but will abridge the trouble attendant 

 on the cultivation of this flower. I am willing to allow that there are ob- 

 jections, as far as appearance goes, to almost every mode of treatment. 

 Are we, on that account, to abandon the Dahlia altogether, and refuse 

 to administer that support which nature alone cannot give ? Are we 

 to neglect those systems which alone have brought the Dahlia from 

 its " single blessedness" to the state of perfection at which it has 

 now arrived ? Is not the cultivation of the Pelargonium, the Car- 

 nation, the Rose, and the Heartsease, liable to the same charge of 

 disfigurement ? why, then, select the Dahlia as the flower of all others 

 to bear the imputation of deceptive cultivation, except that, perhaps, 

 from its size, and peculiar habit, it is, more than any, liable to the 

 ravages of insects, and the injurious effects of the weather, requires a 

 more extended system of cultivation, and therefore presents a wider 

 object of attack ? It is stated, that " the whole system of growing 

 Dahlias is deceptive ;" but I am at a loss to understand how any 

 system can be deceptive that is the means of improving the general 



