286 Mditional Remarks 



casionally very handsome. King Otho is also a large flower, 

 inferior in the early part of the season, but beautiful late in the 

 autumn, \Yhen the blooms are slightly above the medium size. 



If all the kinds were to pass the ordeal of such restrictions, 

 most of them would be found wanting. It is not expected that 

 all will be perfect. But the standard should be set up, and by 

 it all should be judged when offered for sale. We should then 

 hear of less complaints of disappointed purchasers who have paid 

 an enormous price for plants, which, though novelties^ possess 

 few of the beauties and perfections their fancy had conjured up. 

 We trust we have said enough to convey our ideas of what we 

 consider the properties of a first-rate dahlia. 



There have as yet been in this country but a few exhibitions 

 of dahlias for prizes. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 

 the past season, made such awards, as will be seen by a reference 

 to our report of the annual exhibition last fall. The Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society, the present season, has, among other 

 objects, offered some liberal prizes (p. 196,) for the dahlia, and 

 probably there will be several exhibiters for the various classes. 

 We shall be happy to see some competition among the many 

 growers in the vicinity, as it will be the means of a more ex- 

 tended growth of the plants another season. 



The method of exhibiting dahlia^, or rather the style — for 

 there has been no method — has been to display, without any par- 

 cular reference to number, variety, freshness, form, color or 

 size, a mass of blooms, — to arrange them in glasses, sometimes 

 one in each, and sometimes two or more — one flower with a long 

 stem, and another with a short one. JVumber has — we regret to 

 say — often been taken as a warranty of the best and rarest col- 

 lection, variety has been but little thought of, freshness of the 

 blooms less attended to, and those particular properties of form, 

 color and size almost wholly forgotten. Instead of exhibiting, 

 as the most experienced English growers do, six, twelve, twenty- 

 four, fifty, or a hundred faultless blooms, in stands by themselves, 

 our cultivators have shown an indefinite number of all sorts, dis- 

 posed so as to have the most efiect, one flower of which collec- 

 tion, from either its overblown appearance, coarseness of petal, 

 large disk, or eye, or irregular form, would have, in our opinion, 

 condemned the whole. If number is to be the qualification for 

 the prize, let it be known, and all who intend to exhibit will pre- 

 pare themselves accordingly. Or if size is to be considered as 

 a principal properly, it should be so understood. But if exhi- 

 bitions are instituted to show the perfection of the dahlia, then 

 only perfect blooms should be admissible, and these should be 

 estimated by their relative approach to properties which are con- 

 sidered as the standard. 



Here we may be permitted to state our opinion as to the mode 



