THE DAHLIA. 35 



color, or of different colored varieties of same height and habit, according to 

 the taste of the grower. Another useful purpose is to grow them in hedge 

 form around the garden, or anywhere a hedge is desired, and it is impossible 

 to imagine anything lovelier. Just think of a garden enclosed on every side 

 by a hedge four feet high, two and a half feet wide and completely enveloped 

 with beautiful flowers of the loveliest shades, from the softest to the richest. 

 Nor is this picture overdrawn. It is impossible to convey with the pen the 

 great beauty of the scene just described, and it is the wish of the writer that 

 every reader of this little work could have beheld this scene, just as the writer 

 did one beautiful September morning about three years ago. 



Dahlias are used for many other purposes, and are grown in many other 

 forms with most pleasing effect. Some train the tall varieties on trellises in 

 espalier form ; many train them to tall supports, while a few spread them out 

 on the ground, and peg them fast, to give them the appearance of a bed of 

 large flowering pigmies. This latter form is very pleasing, as a plant of 

 some varieties will bloom profusely, and seem to thrive unusually well, while 

 giving the impression of being a number of sturdy plants growing but eight 

 to ten inches high. The Fancy Dahlia, Uncertainty, is especially adapted to 

 this purpose. It is a beautiful, variegated variety, of a sprawling habit, and 

 will produce more 'flowers under this system than any other. 



