112 WESTERN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



propagated either by seed or by division of the root. The 

 s^eds should be treated like tender annuals, sown in the 

 house in February or March and transplanted to two-inch 

 pots and plunged into a hot bed in April or the beginning- of 

 May. The flowers, however, seldom amount to anything- the 

 first year, but the tubers will form during- the summer, and if 

 taken up in the autumn, carefully dried in a shady, well-ven- 

 tilated place, and housed during- the winter in a cool, dry 

 cellar, they will be capable of producing fine flowers next 

 year by merely placing- them in the soil like potatoes after 

 danger from frost is over. The roots may be divided into 

 several parts, but great care must be taken to see that each 

 part has an eye. These buds or eyes are not scattered all 

 over the tuber as in a potato, but collected in a ring round the 

 collar of the root. The eye, when the root is in a dry state, 

 is scarcely preceptible, and nurserymen, to discover it, have 

 often to place the tubers on a forcing bench or hot bed to 

 start the eye, that is, to force the latent bud forward suffici- 

 ently to show where it is situated, before they can divide the 

 plant to form new roots. Gardeners, as a rule, don't divide 

 the roots, however, but they place the tubers in sand in a 

 forcing bench with a strong bottom heat, early in February, 

 and when the shoot is of sufficient size, they take cuttings 

 which they also strike in sand. Small tubers are also grown 

 to facilitate forwarding by mail, and these are obtained by 

 growing the young plant in a very small pot and allowing the 

 root to form, about the size and shape of a large walnut 

 and then letting the plant dry off or wither. This is the best 

 form of shipping Dahlias by mail, as these small tubers are a 

 convenient size and just ready to spring when put in a pot. 

 They can be brought from England or any distant land care- 

 fully packed, without any danger from frost early in the 

 season, and can be brought well forward in the house in pots 

 before time for transplanting to the garden. Care must be 

 taken however, that you purchase these only from the most 

 reliable dealers, or you may find many of them turn out to be 

 blind or barren tubers, which will fill the pot with roots, but 

 show no signs of growth above the earth. These blind tubers 



