DOUBLE DAHLIA. 81 



be either buried in light earth, on the top of a moderate hot- 

 bed, or else potted, and then set in a warm room, or green- 

 house, and watered. As soon as the shoots have grown to 

 the length of two or three inches, the roots may be divided 

 in such a manner as to have a good strong shoot attached 

 to a piece of the tuber, or old stem ; each of these will, if 

 properly managed, make a plant.* Those who may com- 

 mence cultivating at an early season, should put the plants 

 thus separated into small pots, and keep them in a growing 

 state until about the middle of May, at which time they may 

 be turned out of the pots with the balls of earth entire, and 

 planted in the open borders, from three to four feet from each 

 other. Let the ground be well pulverized, and enriched 

 with good old manure, before the plants are set out. If the 

 top soil be shallow, and the subsoil inferior, it would be 

 beneficial to the plants, if holes be dug to the depth of from 

 a foot to eighteen inches, and then replenished with good 

 rich compost, consisting of two-thirds fresh loam, and one 

 third of well rotted manure. 



Many cultivators have found late planting to suit better 

 than early, and I myself have had more perfect flowers, 

 from plants set out about the middle of June, than from 

 those planted in May : this is easily accounted for. In July 

 and August the weather is generally hot, which brings 

 the forwardest plants into bud at an early season, and 

 in the event of a continuation of hot dry weather, such 

 buds fail to produce perfect flowers ; whereas those plants 

 which are set out late, keep growing through the hot 

 weather, and produce their buds just in time to receive all 

 the benefit of the Autumnal rains. From a consideration of 



* In order to obtain an extra number of plants from any choice varieties; 

 cuttings are frequently taken from the shoots, when about three inches in 

 length which are planted in nursery pots, and cultivated in hot-beds, these 

 require to be shaded from the sun, by mats, for the first fortnight, after 

 which they may begradually inured to the air, and treated as plants raise 

 in tho ordinary way. 



