250 OBSERVATIONS ON PRIZE DAHLIAS. 



for the bloom you intend to shade, pass the shaft of the shade care- 

 fully through the staples, then move the stalk of the bloom through 

 the nick into the hollow tube, which must be immediately turned half 

 round to prevent the bloom escaping back again, and with a hammer 

 fasten the wedge to keep the whole apparatus firm. The bloom 

 stands, by help of the tube, just free of the board; turn a flower pot 

 or glass over it, and your shade is complete. 



Three of these shades at a time may be attached to a plant, if 

 required ; and by fixing them to the single pole inside the slug pot 

 you avoid tbe risk of injuring the roots, as you must inevitably do 

 by the general system of making a fresh hole with the stake every time 

 a flower requires the shade ; also your shades stand much steadier, 

 indeed they canuot possibly move; no slugs can approach the plant; 

 and besides, with these the plant does not look so much like a 

 " scarecrow," since no more poles are used than in cases where the 

 shades are altogether dispensed with ; and the foliage serves to con- 

 ceal a great part of the apparatus. 



As to the " air-tight boxes," I consider them wholly needless for 

 all practicable purposes. If some persons can, without the 

 aid of these boxes, and after travelling from one hundred to 

 two hundred miles with their blooms, produce them in such a 

 condition as to obtain the Premier prizes, I think we put ourselves to 

 unnecessary trouble if we resort to any such fancies. 



Such are my humble opinions upon the cultivation of Prize 

 Dahlias, and I will only add that should I have failed in establishing 

 the claims of the Dahlia to the distinguished place it is entitled to 

 hold in the estimation of the florist, I trust that others, who by talent 

 and experience are far better qualified than myself to undertake the 

 task, will not hesitate to complete it. 



Lincolnshire. 



ARTICLE V. 



ON EXHIBITING FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 



BY H.ORISTA, RUGBY, WARWICKSHIRE. 



That the present age is one of improvement in all departments of 

 horticulture, the annual splendid exhibitions in different parts of the 

 kingdom fully testify ; yet, from practical observation, it forcibly 

 occurs to me that an evil exists in manv societies in the mode of ex- 



