232 REVIEWS AND EXTRACTS. 



With the view of obtaining now varieties, some propagators transfer tlio 

 pollen frorn one flower to another, by means of a small camel-hair pencil, 

 ill which case the ilower intended to receive the pollen should be covered 

 with a tine gauze bag, a day or two before the florets expand, and the cover- 

 ing should be continued a few days alter the operation is performed. This 

 method is seldom practised, unless fur the sake of experiment, as the ordinary 

 mode is found very successful in producing line double flowers. 



Cuttings may be made towards the latter end of February, or beginning 

 of March. The old roots should be placed in a hot-house, or in a hoi-bed, 

 and the tubers should be covered with mould, sand, or finely-sifted tanners' 

 bark, leaving only the crown exposed. They will soon put forth shoots ; 

 these should be carefully detached when about two or three inches in length, 

 and planted singly in small pots filled with a compost of equal parts of well 

 decomposed leaf-mould, frame manure, and fine sand, to which should be 

 added a sufficient quantity of finely-sifted garden mould. After the cuttings 

 are inserted, they should be put into a hot-bed, carefully shaded from the 

 sun, and protected at night by mats. If, in applying the linings, steam 

 should arise, the plants will be liable to damp off, unless the lights be suffi- 

 ciently raised to allow the rank steam to escape. In about a fortnight or 

 three weeks the young plants may be removed to a cold frame, and gradually 

 inured to the open air. 



Where extensive propagation is required from new and choice varieties, 

 the roots are usually placed in a hot-bed, and every shoot taken off when 

 about two or three inches high, care being taken not to injure the buds 

 which surround the base of the shoot, for if these are injured or broken off, 

 fresh buds will not be developed from that portion of the crown. 



W here only a limited supply of strong and vigorous plants is required, 

 we have recently discovered that the finest plants are produced by detaching 

 the young shoots, when about two or three inches high, so as to include t lie 

 cluster of buds surrounding the base of each shoot. Some Care is necessary 

 in this process: the shoot should he held near its base by the finger and 

 thumb, and by a slight motion of the hand it may easily he detached, if 

 the operation lie adroitly performed, the base of the shoot will present a 

 convex appearance, surrounded by a number of incipient buds, and a corre- 

 sponding concavity will be found in the crown of the plant from which the 

 shoot lias been extracted. Plants raised by this mode not only produce the 

 finest flowers, but the crowns invariably break the following spring, which 

 is not always the case with plants raised from cuttings in the ordinary man- 

 ner : it has been asserted that the cause, of failure has, in many instances, 

 arisen from the removal of the incipient buds at the base of the leaves of 

 that portion of the cutting which is usually inserted in the ground. 



There can be no doubt, however, if the buds be removed, the cutting will 

 readily strike root, producing luxuriant foliage and a profusion of flowers. 

 But although the tubers are numerous and fully formed, it will, on inspec- 

 tion, be found that they are merely attached to a hollow stem, and, conse- 

 quently, the crown being absent, no buds can possibly be developed by any 

 subsequent treatment. It is therefore important, if the perpetuation of the 

 plant be required, that the buds be not removed. .Some propagators, indeed, 

 on receiving new plants, examine the roots, and unless a portion of the 

 crown be attached, they cut off the shoot close to the surface, treating it as 

 a cutting, in the ordinary manner. 



The plants, whether raised from seeds or from cuttings, may be planted 

 out into the open borders from the middle of May till the beginning of June. 

 They are usuallj' planted from three to four feet apart; but if planted from 

 four to five feet apart, they will not attain so great a height, and if trained 

 to a single stem, will in general produce much finer flowers. The borders 

 should be well manured every spring before planting, and at the same lime 

 about an equal part of good fresh soil should he added. The Dahlia will 

 succeed in almost any soil, though a light sandy loam produces the finest 

 plants: the variegated and striped varieties exhibit their colours more dis- 

 tiiutlv when planted in a peaty soil. The plan of training Dahlias to a 

 trellis appears a good method of securing them, for when lied up to stakes 



