ON DAHLIAS 153 



garden scrap-heap if raisers will frankly acknowledge 

 their mistakes and rectify them promptly. 



There is something very flattering to amateur gar- 

 deners in the way in which Dahlias respond to cultivation. 

 The plants enter into a hearty comradeship with their 

 growers, and bustle ahead in a breezy way that proves 

 quite irresistible. This is why people keep on growing 

 Dahlias, although fully aware of their defects for cutting. 

 When an amateur once takes up Dahlias he is always 

 strongly tempted to go on with them, although the 

 flowers may not show up well on the plants, and are 

 not in favour with the wielder of the flower-scissors. 

 The fact is they pay him the compliment of growing 

 well, and that goes a long way. Only in poor, thin, 

 chalky soil do they " hang fire." They certainly do not 

 like such soil ; it is too dry for them. They have thick 

 stems, large leaves, and huge bulk ; consequently they 

 throw off a great deal of moisture by evaporation. In a 

 dry soil the supply is not replenished. 



History. As popular garden plants go the Dahlia is 

 a comparative newcomer. It has only been grown in 

 British gardens since 1789, when it was brought from 

 Spain by Lord Bute. Compared with such plants as the 

 Rose, the Carnation, and the Daffodil it is a mere boy. 

 The name is a Latinised form of that of a Swedish 

 botanist, one Dahl, after whom it was named ; and, as a 

 result of the method of pronunciation which English 

 gardeners insisted on adopting, confusion threatened, 

 inasmuch as there happened to be an existing genus 

 named Dalea. In vain purists expostulated and ex- 

 plained. In vain they ostentatiously pronounced the 

 ah in Dahlia as they would the exclamation "ah!" 

 The proletariat persisted in making it ay. But the 

 Dahlia received another name. The German botanist 



