OBSERVATIONS ON PRIZE DAHLIAS. 221 



character of a flower. All systems in floriculture are legitimate that 

 can in any way contribute to improvement in the growth of the plant, 

 and — barring all mutilation and dressing — to improvement in the cha- 

 racter of the bloom. If this were otherwise, we should at every step 

 be impeded by the recollection that we were applying to the cultiva- 

 tion of a flower certain systems to which, in its natural state, the 

 flower was wholly unaccustomed, and must rest content to abandon 

 all idea of improving the art of floriculture, for fear we should intro- 

 duce a system at variance with, or in advance of, nature. Would 

 Mr. Pearson plant out his Dahlias in the open border, where no 

 manure had been administered, and at the same time expect to see 

 his plants luxuriant and his blooms flourishing ? He must know 

 full well that such a treatment would, so far from answer his expect- 

 ations, be the best possible mode of perpetuating the single Dahlia. 

 If he would not do so, he must resort to what he terms the deceptive 

 system ; he must use some of those stimulants that he so strongly 

 condemns : he thereby recognizes the principle of the system, and 

 perhaps then only differs from the professional grower as to the extent 

 to which it is to be applied : but why, let me ask, set a limit to the 

 use of any thing that is found beneficial to the growth of the plant ? 

 If I find, by using a wheelbarrowful of manure, instead of half that 

 quantity, to a plant, that I can grow stronger plants, why may I not 

 do so ? Am I to be debarred using a little bone-dust, or manure, or 

 nitrate of soda, or any thing I please ? Am I to be compelled to allow 

 the plant to retain its lateral shoots, and its buds in clusters, merely 

 because my using the manure and the knife would be introducing an 

 artificial and deceptive system of cultivation ? 



We arc told, that " many persons have ordered quantities of 

 Dahlias from exhibited specimens, and when they have planted them 

 in good rich soil, and tied them up to a neat stake, expected to have 

 had flowers like those they saw at the show, and instead of having 

 blooms in the shape of half a globe, have had fiat, ordinary-looking 

 flowers." 



This remark, I presume, is intended to apply chiefly to the new 

 varieties which annually appear, and which the public generally have 

 no other opportunity of inspecting than at the shows: of these it may 

 be said that a vast number are not to be depended upon, as they are 

 not sufficiently proved ■ and that, consequently, no cultivator can 



