OS THE CL'LTURE OV THE DAHLIA. 105 



fortunate enough to possess the Lupinus Marshallianus, but wish- 

 ing to make the most of it, I adopted the following method for its 

 cultivation ; in the month of March I took some shoots oft; (that 

 is) when they had attained the height of an inch or two from the 

 ground, I planted them in a stiff loamy soil, and copiously supplied 

 them with water, and in four or five weeks, to my great surprise, 

 they were rooted ; I then transplanted them in my flower beds, 

 and to my satisfaction, had them flower the same year, thus from 

 one plant, I had five or six all blowing the same year. The reason 

 of my sending this, is, on account of not having seen any thing of 

 the kind in your valuable and extensive work, and thinking that 

 those who possessed a choicer species would be able to propagate 

 and have a more copious supply. If I have commented too largely 

 on the subject, would you be so kind as to frame it in a more com- 

 pact compass, to oblige one, who is, and whose friends are true 

 patrons, and well wishers to your widely circulated Cabinet. 



ARTICLE IV. 

 ON THE CULTURE OF THE DAHLIA. 



BY S. R. P. 



Permit me, at any convenient opportunity, the use of your 

 widely circulating medium, the Floricultural Cabinet, to publish a 

 method by which the disappointment so often experienced by ama- 

 teur growers of Dahlias in the loss of their roots, during the win- 

 ter, may be avoided, and by which simple means, I have preserved 

 the tubes of these truly splendid flowers, through the dormant 

 months, in the greatest perfection. Let any of the usual means be 

 employed of propagating duplicates of the sorts required to be sa- 

 ved ; but I will describe my own. I take from the growing plants 

 the first lateral shoots, divide them with a sharp knife, under the 

 third joint from the top, and cut oft' the two bottom leaves a little 

 distance from the stem, without mutilating the eyes that will be 

 seen in the axils of the leaves. These are planted so as to touch 

 the side of the pot, which, if convenient, may be plunged in a little 

 heat ; as soon as they have made roots, they are planted singly in 

 GOs. and finally repotted into 48s. every flower bud is removed, 

 and the growth of the plant promoted till the middle of September, 

 vol. v. h 



