1O4 NEW ZEALAND GARDENING. 



Dahlia. Characteristics of a Show Flower. i Form 

 Viewed in front the flower should be a perfect circle ; the 

 petals broad at the ends, smooth at the edges, thick and 

 stiff in substance, perfectly free from indenture or point, 

 and should cup a little, but not enough to show the under 

 surface. They should be in regular rows, each row forming 

 a perfect circle, without any vacancy between them ; and all 

 in the circle should be the same size, uniformly opened to the 

 same shape, and not rubbed nor crumpled. 2. Looked at 

 /sideways, the flower should form two-thirds of a ball. The 

 rows of petals should rise one above another in rows : every 

 petal should cover the join of the two petals under it, which 

 the florists call imbricating ; by this means the circular 

 appearance is perfected throughout. 3. The centre should 

 be perfect ; the unbloomed petals lying with their points 

 towards the centre should form a button, and should be 

 the highest part of the flower, completing the ball. 4. The 

 flower should be very double. The rows of petals lying 

 one above another should cover one another very nearly ; 

 not more should be seen in depth than half the breadth ; 

 the more they are covered, so as to leave them distinct, the 

 better in that respect ; the petals, therefore, though cupped, 

 must be shallow. 5. Size. The size of the flower when 

 well-grown should be not less than four inches in diameter. 

 . Colour. The colour should be dense, whatever it may 

 be not as if it were a white dipped in colour, but as if the 

 whole flower were coloured throughout. Whether tipped or 

 edged, it must be free from splashes or blotches, or indefi- 

 nite marks of any kind ; and new flowers, unless they beat 

 all old ones of the same colour, or are of a novel colour them- 

 selves, with a majority of the points of excellence, should 

 be rejected. 



Defects. If the petals show the under side too much, 

 even when looked at sideways if they do not cover each 

 other well if the centre is composed of petals pointing 

 upwards, or if those which are round the centre are con- 

 fused if the petals are too narrow, or exhibit too much of 

 their length or if they show any of the green scale at the 

 bottom of the petals if the eye is sunk if the shoulder is 

 too high, the face flat, or the sides too upright if the petals 

 show an indenture as if heart-shaped if the petals are too 



