ON THE DAHLIA 



center of the flower, owing to the fact that not all 

 of the stamens have been transformed into florets 

 even in the most developed varieties. The result 

 is that in a dry summer, or toward the end of the 

 season, even good varieties may fail to show the 

 fully rounded head that is prized by the connois- 

 seur. 



I succeeded through selection in overcoming 

 this defect, causing the heads to fill out altogether, 

 so that they were double to the very center, even 

 at the end of our dry California seasons. A num- 

 ber of varieties were thus perfected, and these 

 were, I believe, the only entirely double dahlias 

 that were ever produced. 



As the ideal sought was approximated, the 

 flowers produced less and less seed, and the per- 

 fectly double ones produced none at all. 



So the races thus developed must be propagated 

 altogether from the bulbs. This, indeed, is not an 

 insuperable objection, inasmuch as this is a com- 

 mon way of propagating the dahlia. But of course 

 there is always an added merit in a garden flower 

 that can be produced from the seed. 



It is well-known, however, that even the best- 

 fixed races of dahlias are not expected to breed 

 true from the seed. Like other specialized flowers 

 they carry too many hereditary strains in new 

 combinations to be expected to breed true to any 



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