>34 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



PART III. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



QUERIES. 



On Pansibs. When is the time to increase Pansies, so as to have them in 



a condition the best adapted to endure the winter ? Is it usual to keep them 

 through the winter in the open air, or to preserve some of the choice kinds 

 in the greenhouse? "• 



(Thrives best in pots, kept in a cool frame. — Cond.) 



On Geraniums, &c— Having a little collection of plants growing in beds, 

 but which are principally Geraniums, would you, or any of your readers, be 

 so obligiog as to inform me, through your Magazine, how I can preserve 

 them in the winter, having neither frame nor pot. Do you think cutting 

 them down as soon as they have bloomed, and, about October, burying them 

 in saw-dust, would succeed ? Louisa. 



(We have seen that mode tried and the roots kept alive, but they grew 

 very weakly the following season. It is far preferable to take the plants up, 

 and place them as close as possible in a wicker basket, or box, and after 

 filling up with soil, water them, and they may be kept in a cellar or kitchen, 

 where it is cool; and plant eut in spring. — Cond.) 



On the criterion of a Dahlia Flower.— -The Conductor of the Cabinet 

 would oblige many of his readers by informing them whether it is proper to 

 take out the eye, (centre) of a Dahlia flower, before shewing it at an exhi- 

 bition, and whether a flower so treated should be disqualified or not? 



The question is asked in consequence of a dispute about the matter; one 

 party considering it right to " take as much of what is judged to be defective 

 from a flower as the person pleases, but, add nothing to it ; whilst the other 

 party contends, " let the flower be as it naturally grows, to be so taken from 

 the plant, and thus exhibited. 



If the latter be the condition, not even a defective petal can be allowed to 

 be taken away without violation of the rule, in which case_ a pan of flowers 

 in a perfect state would very rarely be seen. An answer in the September 

 Cabinet will be esteemed a favor by Hope. 



(It is certainly not only our own decided opinion, but one, we believe, 

 pretty generally admitted amongst growers, that every Dahlia bloom having 

 the centre taken out is totally disqualified, and that a bloom having only 

 some one or two defective petals extracted i3 not disqualified, and for seve- 

 ral reasons, a primary one of which, is, that there are several kinds of 

 Dahlias very rarely producing blooms without an imperfect centre, the taking 

 out of such, and causing the inner petals to close over and conceal the hol- 

 low made by taking out the eye, deceives the spectators in a very material 

 point, being an artifice, which, (from the circumstance of their being pro- 

 hibited to touch a flower,) they are not likely to discover. By the deception 

 thus practised,, a false impression of the qualities of a flower is received and 

 subsequently a number of plants are ordered, in many cases, solely to grow 

 for competition, at exhibitions, these when blooming, not only create much 

 dissatisfaction, but, depending upon what appeared possitively to be a good 



