180 BRECK’S NEW BOOK OF FLOWERS. 
the bill footed up over eight hundred dollars, where it was 
expected one- “quarter of that sum would cover the expense. 
But we were in for it, and must make the best of it, and 
I consoled myself with the thought of the pleasure that 
would be derived in watching the opening of these gor- 
geous new varieties. One plant each was received, accord- 
ing to agreement, about the middle of June, raised from 
cuttings taken from the small tubers; but they were so 
weak and attenuated, and the season being unfavorable, 
they proved a perfect failure, and not asingle blossom from 
the whole rewarded me for the expense, trouble, and vex- 
ation which I experienced. It is said of a certain South- 
ern Senator, who was violently opposed to the old tariff, 
and of course to manufacturers of cloth, and to the an- 
imal that produced the raw material, so bitter were his 
feelings, that he remarked in one of his speeches, that 
“he would go any time a mile out of the way to kick a 
sheep.” I haveno such feeling of hatred and spite against 
the innocent Dahlias, but when I think of these past ex- 
periences with it, it produces feelings somewhat akin to 
those of the statesman as expressed in his speech. How- 
ever, I will give no more kicks at this flower, but some- 
what modify my original article on the Dahlia, and present 
it in the following shape :-— 
‘* In queenly elegance the Dahlia stands, 
And waves her coronet.” 
This flower is so capricious in its flowering, so subject to 
the ravages of insects, so much influenced by too much heat, 
too much dryness, or too much wet; and then, just as it be- 
gins to give promise of abundant bloom, having escaped all 
the casualties of the season, is cut down by the frost as it is 
beginning to give promise of flower, that after so many 
disappointed hopes, I have sometimes been disposed to 
say I would not try it again. It must be confessed, how- 
ever, it is on some accounts desirable; the flowers are 
