158 ON BLOOMING DAHLIAS FOR SHOW. 



thusiastic partiality to the Dahlia. Oh! there is something about 

 the Dahlia which in my eyes can be found in no other race of plants ; 

 a richness, a diversity, a brilliancy, and nobleness of form altogether 

 unparalleled by any other of Flora's lovely offspring. It is a flower 

 that is not only magnificent and dazzling as a border ornament, but 

 it is one also that will bear the most strict scrutiny and examination ; 

 take up a perfect specimen, look at it, examine it '. mark the beauty 

 and regularity of its arrangement, petal over petal, tier over tier, all 

 moulded and dispersed with the most perfect order and exactitude ; 

 look at its symmetry, its depth, roundness, and circularity ; behold 

 the exquisite shades and tints of its colouring ! it is not only the mere 

 perfection of some half dozen or half score petals which constitute 

 many of our florists' flowers, but it is the perfection of hundreds, all 

 modelled and pencilled with the nicest equality and similitude ; and 

 when we look upon and admire these beautiful productions of nature 

 and "art combined, we cannot refrain from breaking out in the oft- 

 quoted and ever beautiful lines of Thomson : — 



" Who can paint 

 Like nature? can imagination boast, 

 Amidst his gay creation, hues like hers ? 

 And can he mix them with that matchless skill 

 And lay them on so delicately tine 

 And lose them in each other, as appears 

 In every bud that blows ? If fancy then, 

 Unequal, fails beneath the pleasing task, 

 Ah ! what can language do ? 



But I must cut short my enthusiasm, and return at once to the ori- 

 ginal design with which I set out, i. e. just to offer a few plain and 

 practical directions for producing blooms in their most perfect attain- 

 able state. I do not know that I am going to bring forward anything 

 new on this subject, or different from what is practised by perhaps 

 nine florists out of every ten ; but there is always a certain class of 

 amateurs springing up, and what, in garden phraseology, are techni- 

 cally called " Young Beginners," who, though they may be growing 

 all the best varieties in cultivation, and treating them (as they think) 

 with every kindness, yet, when they go to the floral exhibitions and 

 see the complete superiority of the flowers there exhibited over their 

 own, often return altogether discouraged and dissatisfied with their 

 own comparatively meagre productions. It is for this class that I 



