222 OBSERVATIONS ON PRIZE DAHLIAS. 



prevent disappointment. How many hundreds, in the recollection 

 of us all, have been brought out, and from the decision upon a single 

 bloom been declared first-rate, but have, from the cause above named, 

 died a natural death, and their claims to excellence are now no longer 

 recognized by the prize growers ! that, more than any other, — and not 

 defective cultivation, — is the reason we so often feel disappointment on 

 growing for the first time some new varieties. Another cause of the 

 failure in obtaining good blooms is the weak state in which the plants 

 are sent out by nurserymen, and it is much to be regretted that the 

 plants do not possess strength sufficient to enable them to bloom 

 freely before the frosts attack them. Probably the demand is such 

 as to prevent nurserymen doing this. In the midland and northern 

 counties this inconvenience is much felt. 



I will not presume to lay down an entire system for the cultivation 

 of the Dahlia, but merely give a general outline of the treatment 

 which — or something like it — an amateur must adopt, if he intends 

 growing blooms of any excellence, and shall be content to leave the 

 trial of other and, in my opinion, needless experiments to those who 

 feel inclined to attempt them. 



The system I pursue is, I believe, one very generally adopted, and 

 one with which I succeed in obtaining an abundance of fine blooms. 

 About the end of May, or the beginning of June, I put the plants 

 into the ground, with a large proportion of well-rotted manure ; at the 

 same time I use about half a quartern of bone-dust to each. I then 

 place over the plant a slug-pot, containing water, which effectually 

 protects the plant from the attacks of the slugs, and, in a great degree, 

 from the injury inflicted by the earwig, which latter is easily caught 

 by turning a 60-sized flower-pot, with moss at the bottom, over the 

 smooth round pole, two inches in diameter, which I affix (inside the 

 slug-pot) to each plant. 



(To be continued.) 



ARTICLE III. 



HISTORY OF THE HEARTSEASE. 



BV MR. THOMSON, OK IVF.R. 



" About seven or eight and twenty years ago, Lord Gambier brought 

 me a few roots of the common yellow and white Heartsease, which 

 he had gathered in the grounds at Iver, and requested that I would 



