158 GLEANINGS FROM OLD AUTHORS. 



I have just received a letter from the person who furnished the 

 above practical particulars, and who says the hedge has not suffered 

 the least during the last winter, but is now full of young shoots. 



Near Bedford, May 20th 1836. 



P. S. I think the plan of forming a plant after the above man- 

 ner, would be very proper to stand singly on a lawn ; the plant would 

 be feathered with branches from the ground to the top ; I have two 

 in course of training and pruning. 



ARTICLE VII.— REMARKS ON THE TREATMENT OF THE DAHLIA. 



BY MR. WILLIAM CHARLES. 



Everything tending to the improvement of Floriculture, I am 

 sure will meet with encouragement from the conductor of the Cabinet. 

 I therefore forward a few remarks on the treatment of the Dahlia, 

 for insertion in that Publication. 



For several years I have had opportunities, both from extensive 

 practice and observations in some of the principal Nurseries in the 

 Kingdom, of ascertaining what method of culture with the Dahlia, 

 throughout the year, would be successful, so as to secure a profuse 

 bloom of fine flowers, and preserve the roots most sound through 

 winter. These desirable results are most effectually produced by 

 earthing the stems up similar to what is done with potatoes ; the ad- 

 vantages derived from it are numerous — the plants grow more freely, 

 the flowers larger, the colours finer, the crowns of the roots more 

 plumper, the roots more sound, in Autumn the crowns are preserved 

 from effects of cold, rain, and frost, and the roots keep far better in 

 winter than if otherwise treated. 



I find too, that if the stems of seedlings be earthed up, that it will 

 cause them to bloom earlier by three weeks. 



June 4th, 1836. 



ARTICLE VIII.— GLEANINGS FROM OLD AUTHORS. 



BY FLORA. 



It is certain, that all plants are naturally possessed of a humour that 

 we call Radical, without which, they could never grow; and in regard 

 this humour is fed and maintained by another foreign humour, which 

 arises commonly from rain, or from the watering of the plants, we 

 may from thence gather the necessary use of watering. It is by 

 this succour, that these productions extend all their parts, and act 

 with such life and efficacy as to answer our desires. 



So it remains only to know how this watering is to be performed, 

 so as to benefit the flowers, and make them look gay in the garden. 





