20 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



cultivators in the early days who distinguished themselves 

 as raisers were Mr. J. Wells of Redhill and Mr. Douglas of 

 Putney Hill, the former being the first to raise a dwarf, 

 double Dahlia. 



Good progress must have been made in the next few 

 years, for in 1826 the Royal Horticultural Society had in its 

 Chiswick gardens upwards of sixty double varieties. The 

 improvement in the form and size of the flowers and the 

 development of the varying shades of colour proceeded with 

 great rapidity until 1832, when a great advance was marked 

 by the introduction of Springfield Rival, a crimson self of 

 quite exceptional merit. During the next few years the 

 rate at which new varieties were introduced was very great, 

 for the Dahlia Register for 1836 contains fifty coloured 

 illustrations of the leading Dahlias, and also a list of 700 

 varieties from which the cultivator could select when 

 making additions to his collection. From 1836 to 1856 

 was a period of great activity among Dahlia growers and 

 raisers, and the improvements made in the flowers was so 

 great that but few varieties were shown more than four or 

 five years with the exception of Springfield Rival, which pos- 

 sessed merit of so high an order as to be able to hold its 

 own on the exhibition stage far beyond the average period. 



In these days seedling Dahlias that were distinct and 

 highly meritorious were readily purchased by enterprising 

 nurserymen at prices that would be considered very high at 

 the present day; thus in 1834 the stock of Beauty of 

 Teffont, a light-coloured flower raised by a clergyman, was 

 sold for .60. This was followed by Yellow Defiance, which 

 was purchased from the raiser for the sum of ^200. In the 

 next few years the varieties Alice, Beeswing, Cleopatra, and 



