September 26, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
243 
the usage was followed by the richer and larger guilds, whose 
offerings would be infinitely more worthy of the acceptance 
of the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress. In reply the 
Lord Mayor thanked the Company warmly for their gift, and 
also, in accordance with custom, invited them to dine with him 
at the Mansion House. 
SINGLE DAHLIAS. 
For a number of years past raisers of new varieties of 
Dahlias have devoted their attention almost wholly to the 
raising of double flowers, and have reached a point of excel- 
lence to which it appears difficult to make any further advance. 
New colours or combinations of colours may be produced, but 
as far as regards shape and symmetry of the blooms little, if 
any, improvement can be expected. There is, however, a wide 
field open for raising new varieties having single flowers, and 
we shall not be surprised if single Dahlias do not become 
popular. 
We last year referred approvingly to two rows of single 
Dahlias, scarlet and yellow, in the nurseries of Messrs. Veitch 
and Sons at Chelsea. No one could see those varieties as 
there grown in quantity without being impressed by their 
chaste yet glowing beauty. Mr. Cannell also, at the last 
Fig. 38.—DAHLIA PARAGON. 
meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, exhibited beautiful 
blooms of these varieties under the names of coccinea and lutea, 
and also submitted a third variety, named Paragon, which by 
the richness of its colours and its exquisite form caused some- 
thing like a sensation in the Council-room. This striking 
Dahlia was unanimously awarded a first-class certificate, and 
the honour has not this year been bestowed on a flower more 
rich in colour and more distinct—so distinct that it was con- 
sidered by some of its admirers as a species: it is, however, 
probably a variety of the old crimson fertile-rayed Dahlia 
superflua. In every point it is an improvement on D. super- 
flua, which has long pointed petals that do not overlap; the 
variety Paragon has smooth rounded petals, which, besides 
overlapping, have a slight but elegant reflex, contributing 
greatly to the refinement of the flower. The colour, too, is 
intensely rich—a glowing velvety maroon, each petal having 
further a well-defined narrow margin of reddish claret. The 
petals are also of good substance, and the flower is perfectly 
round like a Zinnia. The yellow and scarlet varieties noticed 
also possess the same excellence of form, and are singularly 
clear in colour. The accompanying figure of Paragon shows 
the form of those single Dahlias and how much they are in 
advance of the starry single flowers of our forefathers. 
The plants are free in growth and floriferous, and are emi- 
nently suited for forming back rows in borders, while the 
flowers are admirably adapted for the decoration of vases, &c., 
for which double flowers are too heavy arid formal. A white 
single Dahlia having the same good qualities of form and 
