36 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GAEDENING. 



hardly anything else is desired in the way of sym- 

 metry, doubleness, and colour. 



There are now in cultivation five distinct classes of 

 Dahlias : viz., Show, Fancy, Bedding, Bouquet, and 

 ■Single. These distinctions are somewhat arbitrary, 

 and it is difi&cult to define them in popular terms. 

 The Show varieties comprise all self-coloured flowers, 

 and those having dark-coloured tips. To the com- 

 position of a Fancy Dahlia, two or more distinct 

 colours are essential. 

 There are Fancy Dah- 

 lias, and striped Fancy 

 Dahlias : if the varie- 

 gation is in the form 

 of stripes or flakes, 

 whether the light or 

 the dark preponderate ; 

 if the variegation con- 

 sists in the edges or 

 tips of the florets 

 differing from the 

 general or ground 

 colour, then the relative 

 'position of the colours 



determines whether a 

 bloom is a fancy flower 



or otherwise. Thus a 



white, yellow, or any 



pale variety, edged, 



tipped, or laced with a 



dark colour, after the 



manner of the Picotee, 



is denominated simply 



an edged, tipped, or 



laced Dahlia ; but "when 



this disposition of 



colours is reversed — 



i.e., when the florets 



of a dark flower are 



tipped with a light 



colour — the variety so 



marked is termed a 



tipped Fancy Dahlia. 



But of late years Show and Fancy Dahlias have 

 approximated so closely' together, that it will soon 

 be difficult to set up an intelligible distinction 

 between them. 



The Bedding Dahlias are dwarfed free branch- 

 ing varieties, flowering freely, and bearing their 

 flowers well above the foliage upon erect stems. 

 The Bouquet varieties are also known as Pompon 

 Dahlias: they have quite small and very double 

 flowers ; they are produced with wonderful freedom, 

 and last well when used in a cut state. Some are of 

 rather tall, some of quite dwarf growth. The Single 

 varieties being now so popular, are too well known 



to need description, and 

 numerous group. 



they are now a very 



Single Striped Dahlia (Union Jack). 



Culture of the Dahlia. — Propagation. — This 

 is almost entirely done by means of cuttings. The 

 Dahlia is a tuberous-rooted perennial, and when the 

 roots are lifted in autumn, the earth adhering to 

 them is cleaned off. and they are put away in a di-y 

 cool place out of the reach of frost for the winter. 



In March the roots are 

 placed in an ordinary 

 hot-bed, or in a pro- 

 pagating frame, and 

 partly covered with 

 soil, and by means of a 

 brisk and moist bottom 

 heat cuttings are put 

 forth, and as soon as 

 they are three inches 

 or so in length, they 

 are taken off with a 

 sharp knife, placed in 

 cutting-pots filled with 

 a fine light soil, and 

 plimged in a hot-bed. 

 Here they soon strike 

 root, and they are 

 then potted singly 

 into small pots, and 

 gradually hardened off, 

 and finally planted out 

 at the end of May or 

 beginning of June, ac- 

 cording to the weather. 

 Some persons who re- 

 quire but a small 

 number of plants divide 

 their roots, but pot each 

 divided piece so as to 

 encourage it to make a 

 good plant. 



New varieties are 

 raised from seeds, but 

 it is a practice followed almost exclusively by those 

 whose particular business it is to raise and send out 

 new varieties. It is not an easy matter to procure 

 good seed, and the method usually adopted is to re- 

 move all the blooms from a plant in the month 

 of September with the exception of those left to 

 mature seed. It is in the nature of the plant to 

 mature seed as soon as the growth and production 

 of bloom is checked. It is well to leave the flowers 

 on the plants as long as possible, but as soon as it 

 is unsafe to risk danger from frost, they should be 

 cut off, each with a stem six or eight inches long, 

 tied up in bunches, haK a dozen together, and hung 



