142 MISCELIANEOUS IXTELLIGENCE. 



once — for "Hercules himself must yield to odds" — let me try my hand at 

 them singly and serialum. I begin, therefore, with the shorttfst, and in slioii, 

 then, il/r. Short, I have merely to say to you, with all possible deference and 

 submission to your very superior judgment in these matters, that I conceive 

 e%'ery one has a right, without consulting your sapieuce, to give an opinion and 

 offer any suggestion he may think proper, on the work in question. J have 

 given my suggestions honestly, and you may if you please cut out the leaf 

 that contains them and light your pipe therewith. Your modest request, 

 respecting my name, shall not long be denied — it is, Galant/nis yiivalis, formerly 

 of Chelsea, now of Snowdrop Cottaye, Primrose Hill. And now that the Long 

 and the Short of the matter are settled, I shall be exceedingly gratified to see 

 your "something" shortly, and hope for the honour of "Martin Hall!" — 

 (Heaven save the mark ! — it will be a little more grammatical and profound 

 than your late nothing. — What a vivida vis animi ! what powerful ratiocina- 

 tion ! and then how beautifully expressed (I dare not quote the words,) that 

 selling a shilling work for sixpence would be gaining a loss ! 

 " Poor Gentleman I'm sorry for you, 

 And pity much your upper story." 



To an Amateur, who ignorant of the dift'erence between a cabinet and green- 

 house, and who, moreover, confesses himself no Gardener, seeing also, that he 

 has more " modesty," "propriety," and greenness than his fellows, I do not 

 mind being civil enough to inform him, that dictation was never for a mo- 

 ment contemplated by me — suggestion was all that was intended. Indeed, I 

 had no idea that the note in question would have been printed, or a few of 

 the rugged points would have been softened down, to prevent the delicate 

 feelings of such fastidious ursine gentry as him and his " twinned brothers," 

 from being shocked " out of all cess." 



Mister }. C. H., I advise you in future to " let your reason with your choler 

 question what 'tis you go about," and should you have occasion to pen such 

 another epistle as that in number 5, 1 make it my " business" to recommend 

 2/011, yourself, for your own sake, to put it, italics and all, into " the latter end 

 of a sea coal fire." 



" Utmm horum, mavis accipe." 



I have thus. Sir, very lightly top dressed the above worthy triumvirate, 

 fearing that if I had made the compost stronger, they might grow too luxuriant 

 for your Cabinet. Your's, &.c. Snowdrop. 



In page 113 of the Cabinet, I see some remarks by His Lordship, on the 

 mode of striking Dahlies from cuttings as given in page G7 by Daffodil. 

 "Whether in the remarks His Lordship has given, he purposely states an 

 untruth or not, I have not the means of ascertaining, without he attests the 

 fact in some subsequent article. I beg, however, to inform him, that such 

 statement is untrue. I have struck hundreds of Dahlia cuttings, and have in- 

 variably cut them thro' close to the underside of the joint; I wish His 

 Lordship to understand me as not meaning any distance from it, nor thro' 

 the middle of the joint, and of the cuttings I have thus put off, I calculate 

 not more than one in twenty have failed of striking, the root pushing from the 

 edges of the joint. 1 should be very sorry for any admirer and cultivator of 

 this truly noble splendid flower, to be misled by such wilful or erroneous state- 

 ments as His Lordship has sent forth. It is possible for cuttings taken oft' 

 and cut thro' the stalk at some distance (say one or two inches) from any 

 joint to strike root; I have not seen many instances of it, but I believe with 

 Dahlias in general that ninety out of every hundred would fail — there is a 

 sort which I have found to increase when so cut, viz. Levick's Incomparable, 

 or tipped Dahlia. If His Lordship should not possess that Dahlia, and will 

 apply to me, 1 can give him a plant, or if nearer his residence, 1 dare say he 

 may get readily supplied from the Gentleman who raised it at Shefiield, in 

 Yorkshire, and then his powers, and astonishing capabilities, of striking 

 Dahlia cuttings where he has no eyes in the soil, may perhaps be successful ; 

 but as in the first statement he has made, which I am confident from the 

 results of my own practice is a wilful untruth, so is the latter, if he applies it 

 to all Dahlias. 



1 think His LouDSiiiP is correct as to eyes of cuttings sometimes being 

 damaged by an excess of water, but even then, the whole cutting generally dies. 



