DAHLIA. 



143 



DAHLIA. 



the garden narcissus will be found in the 

 Narcissus poeticus, or Poet's Narcissus, 

 with white petals and a yellow cup, edged 

 with vivid scarlet, of whose flowers an 

 illustration is given here. 



Dahlia (not* ord. Compos'itSB). 



This beautiful flowering plant, named 

 after the Swedish botanist, Dahl, belongs 

 to the same family, and is a native of the 

 same country as the potato, namely, 

 Mexico, where it was found in sandy plains 

 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. It 

 was sent to Europe in 1789, by Cervantes, 

 then the director of the Mexican Botanic 

 Gardens, who was a Spaniard ; Mexico 

 being at that time under Spanish rule. He 

 named it Dahlia coccinea. Under the im- 

 pression that sandy soil was its proper com- 



DOUBLE VARIETY OF DAHLIA. 



post, it lingered in our gardens, a miserable 

 scraggy plant, till 1815, when a fresh and 

 improved stock was introduced from France, 

 and it was taken up by the florists. Under 

 the influence of cultivation, it has been so 

 much improved in form as to become one 

 of the finest flowers of the garden, while 

 the shades of colour are so numerous, so 

 diverse, and so opposite, and in so many 

 shades, that it would be difficult to find 

 another plant at once so hardy and so 

 showy. 



Propagation. Dahlias may be multiplied 

 by seeds, by dividing the tuber every eye, 

 when separated with a portion of the tuber, 

 making a plant. Others, again, cut off the 

 young shoots under the lower leaves, and 

 strike them in small pots filled with sandy 

 soil. Experiments have even been made 

 to ascertain how far grafting would succeed 

 with the dahlia. 



Seedlings : their Management. Seed- 

 lings are procured by sowing the seeds in 

 shallow pans and plunging them into a 

 hotbed, or by sowing on hotbeds, prepared 

 for the purpose, in March. The soil should 

 be light and sandy, with a mixture of peat- 

 mould. The seed should be chosen from 

 the best varieties only ; it should be lightly 

 covered with soil. A few days will bring 

 them .up, when they require all the air 

 which can be given them safely. In April 

 they will be ready for potting off either 

 singly in the smallest sized, or round the 

 edge of 6-inch pots, which strengthens 

 them for final planting out. Towards the 

 middle or end of August, if successfully 

 treated, they will begin to bloom ; at this 

 time they should be examined daily, all 

 single and demi-single bloom thrown away, 

 unless they present some new colour or 

 show some peculiar habit of growth, which 

 may be improved by further cultivation and 

 crossing. Caution in this respect is the 

 more necessary, as it is the habit of the 

 dahlia to improve under a second year's 

 cultivation, some of our finest varieties 

 having come up with indifferent flowers as 

 seedlings. When done flowering, the young 

 bulbs are taken up and treated as old 

 tubers. 



Cuttings : their Management. Cuttings 

 are taken as follows : In February or 

 March, and even as late as the first week 

 in April, the tuber, which has been care- 

 fully wintered in a dry place, is placed in 

 soil placed over a hotbed, and in a very 

 short time as many shoots as there are eyes 



