OBSERVATIONS ON FR1ZE DAHLIAS. 249 



vinery of the glass, and expect to carry off a gold Banksian for the 

 best grapes. The Dahlia wherever it succeeds cannot do so without 

 the shade ; abandon your shade, and you may as well with it abandon 

 also your Dahlia. 



It is almost needless to state what we have to surmount ere we can 

 calculate on rearing a healthy bloom. The slug in the primary 

 stages, the earwig, the thrip, and other insects ; the pelting rains, the 

 scorching sun, and the boisterous winds in the more advanced stages, 

 each in their turn discolour and destroy the petals of the bloom, and 

 prevent, where no efficient — and if you like unsightly — protection has 

 been raised, the exhibition of some favourite variety. 



The kind of shade I am in the habit of using is made in the fol- 

 lowing manner : — take a half-inch deal board nine inches square, 

 bore a hole through the centre large enough to admit your little 

 linger ; saw a nick from one of the sides to meet the hole in the centre, 

 the nick to be wide enough to allow the stalk of the bloom to pass 

 freelv; to the hole in the centre fit a hollow wooden tube having: a 

 piece cut out the whole length of the side, something like the lower 

 end of an apple scoop, the opening to be just wide enough for the 

 stalk of the bloom to pass into the tube ; the tube to taper at the 

 lower end, and to be thick enough at the other to prevent its passing 

 more than half through the hole in the board. Underneath the 

 board, and immediately opposite to the nick, a shaft, from twelve to 

 sixteen inches in length, three quarters of an inch in depth, and half 

 an inch in width, is firmly nailed. To hang this shade upon the 

 pole, another and a thicker piece of board is made use of; the follow- 

 ing are the dimensions : — length six inches, width four inches, and 

 thickness one inch ; towards one side of this a hole two inches in 

 diameter is bored to admit of its sliding up and down the pole ; and 

 a wedge attached in the usual way to fix it at any height required ; 

 on the upper side of the board two light staples, about two inches and 

 a-half in length, are driven in at three inches apart, and to such a 

 depth only, and in such a position as to permit the shaft of the other 

 board to pass clear of the pole, and through or under both staples, 

 and to receive support from them when the shade hangs in a horizon- 

 tal position. 



In fixing the shade, first pass the smallest board, with the staples 

 uppermost, down the pole, let some one hold it at the height required 



