io8 The Dahlia 



enduring qualities of the bloom when cut are all 

 powerful factors in the determination of the merit of 

 a claimant for notice. All these little points are 

 worthy of remembering ; for a clear understanding of 

 the conditions will enable the English student to better 

 appreciate the sometimes very frigid reception that has 

 been accorded to some of the most heralded beauties 

 from " across the water." Then, again, it must be 

 remembered that climatic differences influence the 

 behaviour of a variety, and the popular Green's White 

 of the English fancier is not a success in the gardens 

 about New York solely for this reason. The flower 

 as seen here is undeveloped, and of a poor nondescript 

 colour. This is given merely as an example ; it is not 

 an isolated case, nor, on the other hand, is it to be 

 understood as a rule. Each variety must be tested 

 for itself. 



Up to about fifty years ago there was a great 

 interest in the growing of Dahlias in the neighbour- 

 hood of Philadelphia, Pa. Indeed there was an 

 intense rivalry among a few prominent gentlemen 

 of the city as to who should have the best and the 

 latest varieties of the flower of their fancy. We 

 gather/from the records of that period that then, as 

 now, the novelties came from Europe, chiefly from 

 England indeed. And big prices were paid for the 

 privilege of securing the most sensational of the new 

 things. Indeed it is said that two gentlemen were in 

 the habit of making the voyage each year, collecting 

 the new things, and fighting out the battle for supre- 

 macy on the exhibition boards the next season. 



Then carne a lull. The Dahlia, although grown 

 on a fairly large scale, was not a flower of critical 



