ON BLOOMING DAHLIAS Fort SHOW. 157 



hence the rays of light are in some way necessary to the peifect 

 growth of vegetables ; since, when deprived of this influence, they all 

 agree in the nature and qualities of the juices they contain ; nor 

 have they that variety in colour and flavour which they had before. 

 The most pungent vegetables become insipid, the highest-scented 

 inodorous, and the most variegated in colour of a uniform whiteness, 

 when secluded from light. Vegetables, too, which grow in a natural 

 situation, readily burn when dry; but a vegetable reared in a dark 

 box contains nothing inflammable."— (Essays on Chemical Subjects, 

 p. 430.) In regard to colour and smell, similar observations were 

 made by Professor Robison on tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and other 

 plants, which, when grown in darkness, were white, and afforded no 

 aromatic smell ; but, when brought into daylight, the white foliage 

 died down, and the stocks then produced the proper plants in their 

 usual dress, and having all their distinguishing smells. — (Black's 

 Chemical Lectures, by Robison, vol. i. p. 532.) 



[To be continued.] 



ARTICLE VII. 



ON BLOOMING DAHLIAS FOR SHOW. 



BY MR. J. HALL, JUN., SHEFFIELD. 



Of all the flowers that decorate our borders, or attract admiration 

 and notice at the Floral exhibition, there is no flower that, in my opi- 

 nion, has so great a claim to the favour and attention of florists as the 

 Dahlia ; and for this reason, there is no flower which has returned 

 such speedy and ample recompense for every trouble and effort that 

 has been bestowed upon its cultivation ; for although but a compara- 

 tively short number of years have elapsed since its first introduction 

 into Europe by Humboldt from the sandy plains of Mexico, where it 

 grew an insignificant single flower; and a much shorter number 

 still since it was first taken in hand as a florist flower, and cultivated 

 with an aim to improvement ; yet we now find it suddenly burst forth 

 as one of the principal plants of the age, and attained to a degree of 

 perfection scarcely equalled by any other flower. 



Chacun a son gout, is the French adage, and of course every man 

 has his own peculiar tastes as to the different merits and beauties of 

 flowers; on this ground then I shall perhaps be excused for my en- 



