OcTijiiER 9, li 



Garden and Forest. 



485 



ag-o growing on trees togetlier with Qdugyne Sanderiana, 

 at an altitude of 500 feet above the sea. It flowers in its 

 native home in July and August, and enjoys a moist and 

 warm atmosphere, and, therefore, the temperature of a 

 Phalaenopsis house will suit it best; but it can also be 

 successfully grown in the warmer part of the Cattleya 

 house if a more moderate supply of water is given. As the 

 plant flowers on its young growths it should be grown on 

 after flowering, until the young bulbs are fully formed, 

 and then less water and lower temperature may be given 

 to it. 



It appears that the plant gets a short rest m its native 

 home, as it begins to grow and flower there again as soon 



\'arietiLS. Then, of course, a Dahlia rcntcnary would not be 

 complete without ils contt'rcuce and " jjapcrs," so \vc had a 

 history of tlie Hower since its advent on English soil up to the 

 present from Shirley Hibbard, who must have taken a deal of 

 pains to hunt up old references in order to ct)mpile the in- 

 structive cln-onicle. He related the early history of the plant 

 from 1615, die date of its introduction to England by the then 

 Marchioness of Bute, then through all its interesting phases of 

 development in the liands of early florists, where and when it 

 lirst produced double flowers, and how the various sections 

 originated, such as the "Show," "Fancy," "Pompon" and 

 "Cactus," and with all this historical detail were interwoven 

 l)lcasant anecdotes and incidents. Besides this litcrar}' disqui- 

 sition we had papers on the practical part of the cjuestion, 

 such as the cultivation of .Show Dahlias l)v Turner, of 



Fis^. 133. — A vvell-;j;iown specimen ot Dendroclnlum liliforine. — See pa,s;;e 484. 



as the dry season of three or four weeks duration is over. 

 Dendrocliiluin fili/onne is difficult to import, owing to its 

 thin and fleshy bulbs which easily dry or rot off, and this is 

 midoubtedly the reason why it is to-day still comparatively 

 scarce. /. Forsknitaim. 



Newtown, L. I. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



'X'HE National Dahlia Society always holds a representative 

 *- exliibition of its chosen flower at Sydenham, liut this year 

 every member seemed to exert himself to make the show out- 

 strip in size and interest all its predecessors, and the result was 

 a really grand exposition of the Dahlia in all its sections and 



Slough, and of other si'Ctions by Clieal, both qualified lecturers. 

 But though we enjoyed a grand exhibition of the Dahlia, 

 with a creditaljle literary accompaniment, little good will be 

 derived from this centennial event. Nothing new was l)rought 

 out in the essays, and no new varieties of the flower were 

 shown. The ex'hibition, however, showed the rapid advances 

 made of late years in the Cactus, decorative and sint^le forms 

 of the flower, and it plainly showed how rapidl}- florists are 

 able to create a supply to meet the public demand for any par- 

 ticular class of plants. It seems but a short time ago when 

 there were no single Dahlias except the old D. coccinea and 

 its forms rarely seen outsitle of a botanic garden. Then ap- 

 peared the beautiful, though tall and coarse growing, Paragon, 

 which seemed to whet the appetite of flower lovers for more. 

 Sino-le varieties at once came in multitudes, until the same 



