ON REARING TLOWERS. 



161 



foliage is sufficiently decayed, and subsequently treated 

 as the old plants. Xew varieties may be obtained by 

 impregnating the pistil of one flower with the pollen of 

 another of a different sort, and, after carefully preserving 

 the seed, sowing it as before recommended. 



Dahlias are likewise tuberous-rooted, but their treat- 

 ment differs essentially from those last considered. Of 

 all florists' flowers, these are, perhaps, the most popular, 

 and every one who is acquainted with them, wull at 

 once admit that they are deservedly so. They are 

 cultivated with such great ease, and the greater part of 

 them may be procured at such a very trifling cost, that 

 they may with propriety be termed " the cottager's 

 flowers."' Many florists, however, annually incur great 

 expense and trouble in the cultivation of these plants ; 

 but, as it is presumed that few of the readers of this 

 little work possess the convenience of frames or ferment- 

 ing materials, the usual mode of cultivating them will not 

 here be detailed ; and w^e shall endeavour to sketch out a 

 system, which will be found simple and economical, as 

 well as efficacious. 



Dahlias may be multiplied either by seeds, by cuttings, 

 or by dividing the roots. The former of these methods 

 is only employed for the purpose of raising new varieties, 

 and the seeds should be saved from the best sorts, 

 plucked on a dry day, and carefully rubbed out of the 

 heads, to be preserved through the winter in a dry 

 drawer or other place. About the month of March the 

 seeds should be sown in boxes, pans, or pots, in a light 

 loamy soil, and kept in the window of a dwelling-room, 

 wdth due attention to watering when required. When 

 the young plants have formed three or four leaves, they 

 may be planted out at three or four inches from each 

 other in a warm border, and sheltered in cold weather 

 and at night by placing a garden-pot over each in an 

 inverted position. As soon as the season is sufficiently 

 advanced, they should be taken up carefully, with balls 

 of earth to the roots, and planted in an exposed situation, 

 at two or three feet from each other either way, where 

 they may be treated as hereafter directed for the old 

 sorts. When they show their flowers, the sorts that 



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