30 UNCERTAIN CHARACTER OF FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 



numerous readers of your publication. I have adopted it, and feel 

 perfectly confident of its success. 



It consists simply of a brick stove, on the same principle as that 

 of Dr. Arnott, with a cast iron top and air-tight doors. I find it dis- 

 tributes the heat much more equally than an iron one. A stove of 

 this description, two feet by seventeen inches, and three feet high, is 

 sufficient to heat a large greenhouse, requiring no chimney, a small 

 pot tube being quite sufficient, and only consuming about a peck of 

 cinders per diem. It requires a valve in the bottom door, by means 

 of which the heat may be regulated to any temperature. 



ARTICLE V. 



ON THE SPORTING AND UNCERTAIN CHARACTER OF 

 FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 



BY MR. W. WOODMANSEY, HARPHAM, NEAR DREFFIELD, YORKSHIRE. 



I know not whether other florists have remarked the sporting and 

 uncertain character of what is commonly denominated florists' 

 flowers ; or whether soil and situation may not have a tendency to 

 make them do so : but this I know by painful experience, that with 

 a few solitary exceptions, the flowers, and especially dahlias and 

 pansies, that I have purchased by a written description alone, have 

 proved themselves sportive, uncertain, and, in many instances, com- 

 paratively worthless. But, perhaps, it may be a natural case, that 

 flowers which are forced by cultivation into different shapes, different 

 colours, and different sizes from their originals, will always have a 

 tendency to return to their pristine state. However, I would confine 

 my remarks in this paper to the Dahlia alone ; and if they be deemed 

 worthy a corner in your valuable Cabinet, I shall, perhaps, at some 

 future period, forward you a few more papers with remarks on the 

 other florists' flowers. 



It is a fact that there are a few Dahlias which have invariably 

 given me entire satisfaction. These are Springfield Rival, which in 

 my humble opinion ought to be christened over again, and the appel- 

 lation of " King of the Field" given to it, for, after all that has been 

 said about many new upstarts, I have never yet seen one to equal it. 

 Alpha is a t,cod old flower, so is Lord Lxjndhurst, Dodd's Mary 



