276 FLORICULTURAL GLEANINGS. 



parting or slipping the offsets is about July, August, and September; 

 that is as soon as the pips begin to fade. Then you must put the 

 young plants in the open border till about October, when they will 

 have taken a good root, and then move them in pots into shelter. 

 At least that is the general way in which I treat them ; but persons 

 should be careful not to neglect dividing them once a-year, or at least 

 once every two years, or they will become too large to do well, and 

 will flower badly. The borders which I like the best have either a 

 northern or eastern aspect ; in these two situations I find them to 

 grow extremely well. 



ARTICLE VII. 



FLORICULTURAL GLEANINGS.— No. 3. 



A HINT ON THE PRESERVATION OF DAHLIA ROOTS. 



BY MR. WILLIAM HARRISON, SECRETARY TO THE FELTON FLORISTS' SOCIETY. 



The glory and grandeur of our Dahlias are now over for this 

 season, and instead of magnificent blooms, nothing is presented to 

 our eyes but rotting, unexpanded pods and blackened leaves and 

 stems. But they are not by themselves in betraying this desolation 

 of the year, for little now. remains to cheer the heart of the lover of 

 Nature's charms. The appearance of all around us betokens au- 

 tumnal decay, and the approach of that season of rest which all 

 creation claims after performing her annual functions. The joyous- 

 ness raised by the luxuriance of summer now gives place to a 

 soothing melancholy — a feeling inseparable from the decline of 

 Nature's charms. 



The pale descending year, yet pleasing still, 

 A gentler mood inspires, for now the leaf 

 Incessant rustles from the mournful grove, 

 Oft startling such as, studious, walk below, 

 And slowly circles through the waving air. 



In such a meditative mood as this, I, the other day, strolled on, 

 occasionally kicking up the " sere and yellow leaves " that covered 

 my path, till I arrived at Lorenzo's cottage. The prospect gradually 

 widened as my distance from my own domicile increased, till at last 

 the eye took in a large extent of cultivated country. The dreary 

 summits of Rimside Moor rose in stern grandeur to the northwards, 



