THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



HORTICULTURE. 



DECEiMBER, 1842, 



MISCELLANEOUS liNTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Foreign Notices. 



ENGLAND. 



English Dahlia Exhibitions for 1842. — The season for the dahlia 

 having now passed, and our papers containing the reports of the 

 principal exhibitions in England having come to hand, we doubt not 

 but that an abstract of the several shows will be particularly interest- 

 ing to our readers, esj)ecially those who are cultivators of the dahlia. 



The cultivation of this favorite and popular flower has been carri- 

 ed to such a degree of perfection, and the standard of a good bloom 

 has been set so high, that few seedlings among the thousands and 

 tens of thousands which are annually raised, can be found, which will 

 come near to the requisite qualities of a first rate flower. The con- 

 sequence of this nice discrimination by the English florists has had a 

 good tendency: it has prevented the palming off a new variety upon 

 the public, merely because it has a new name, or has obtained one or 

 two prizes at exhibitions, where probably the selection of the flowers 

 was made from a hundred plants of the same kind. 



The London F'loricultural Society, a society which has sprung up 

 out of the old Metropolitan, has instituted regular exhibitions of the 

 dahlia during the flowering season, when new seedlings may be ex- 

 hibited, under certain restrictions, for premium. One of these restric- 

 tions was, that at least six blooms of any one sort should be shown to 

 be entitled to a prize. 



The Society, in their attempt to produce a systematic judgment, 

 have proposed that the form for the dahlia should be drawn up as 

 follows: — 



DAHLIA. 



CLASS — . 



Name . Exhibitor . 



C Shape, 

 Petal, <. Substance, 



( Arrangement. 



Color, . 



Eye, 



Depth, 



Size, — 

 Form, 



Class of quality, 



Under this standard all the awards for seedlings will be made. 

 VOL. VIII. NO. XII. 56 



