30 OH THE • lLTr-RE 01 THE DAHLIA. 



advanced in growth, and then remove the root from the bed, place 

 it on a board and divide it (using a sharp knife) into as many 

 pieces as the shoots will admit of; but in doing this he must first 

 examine the under part of the root, for shoots will sometimes arise 

 from the bottom of the root and grow upwards between the tubers. 

 Jt is requisite, therefore, to mind, that in cutting the root with a 

 view to preserve one shoot, another is not destroyed. In doing 

 this, it is as well to cut no more of the root with each shoot than 

 appeal's to be connected with it. Each piece thus divided should 

 then be planted in a large sized 60 or 48, and placed in the bed, 

 plunging the pots but about half way. The more gentle and 

 moderate the heat of the bed for this system of propagation the 

 better, and more air during the day will require to be given to 

 plants thus treated, being stronger and growing much quicker than 

 the mere cuttings, which have to generate an entire and distinct 

 root. As soon as plants thus treated appear to be established and 

 begin to increase in growth, they should be entirely removed from 

 bottom heat, and exposed fully to the open air by day, merely pro- 

 tecting them at night in a frame until the approach of planting 

 time. 



There will doubtless be many whose occupations would neces- 

 sarily restrict their attentions to a hotbed, and for that reason will 

 not provide themselves with one. In that case the roots may be 

 placed in the ground in a warm south aspect in the beginning of 

 May, and completely covered, not more than two inches, with 

 fine light sandy mould, and kept moderately moist, and covered at 

 night with hand-glasses or mats thrown over hoops, and many will 

 thus succeed ; and when the shoots appear above ground and are 

 sufficiently grown, the root may be taken up, divided and potted 

 as above, and when well rooted, planted in their places of destina- 

 tion. 



I can give to those thus circumstanced one satisfactory assur- 

 ance, that plants raised from divisions of the root as above de- 

 scribed will make vigorous and prolific blooming plants, and arc 

 by far the most certain to calculate on as capable of propagation 

 in the following spring, which is not invariably the case with those 

 raised from the ordinary cuttings, as first described, notwithstand- 

 ing the root may be perfectly sound, for every generative particle 

 connected with the shoot is unquestionably by this means pre- 



