11 



this flower. From June 30th, we perceive the Dahlia had 

 been exhibited, at each weekly display, with greater or less 

 perfection, by the several members of the Society, until the 

 recurrence of the Annual Festival, on the 19th, 20th, 21st of 

 September, when, among the rich productions of each de- 

 partment of gardening, this exquisite plant was represented, 

 if not in numbers, yet in considerable perfection. Subjoined, 

 in its proper place, will be found the detailed account of that 

 meeting, to which we refer our readers. We cannot, how- 

 ever, close the present notice on this head without adverting 

 to an incident, by way of encouragement to Dahlia growers. 

 A box of eighteen seedlings was forwarded from Billerica, by 

 Mr Gardener Parker, of which the proprietor of the New 

 England Farmer thus speaks : " Six varieties are very good, 

 and two extra fine. One, the Village Belle, is a fine white 

 flower very delicately tipped with purple. Another variety 

 we named the Billerica Rival will pass for a superb flower. 

 It is large, fine shaped cupped petals, and of a fine rosy 

 crimson. A third flower resembles Newick Rival, is named 

 the Beauty of Middlesex." — (N. E. Farmer, Vol. xvii. No. 

 14, p. 110.) It cannot be presumed, however, that these 

 flowers would bear the same severe criticism which is ap- 

 plied to first rate flowers, yet the result of such an experi- 

 ment may be deemed an important one. 



The universal favorite of the garden, so easily improvable 

 by culture, so ornamental in its every form, and useful to the 

 household economy, the rose next claims our attention. 

 Disseminated over almost every portion of the temperate 

 zones of the globe, or rendered a denizen of every garden, 

 its varieties have become as numerous as taste could dictate 

 or ingenuity devise. Particularly regarded as the flower of 

 June, still it loses none of its charms, when rendered a con- 

 spicuous ornament, in earlier or later months. Several new 

 and superb sorts have been noticed, in the collections of the 



