45 



air early in summer speedily take root, if planted 

 under a hand-glass, with a moderate bottom-heat. 



This mode of propagation is the most important 

 for the dahlia grower's attention. "We shall give full 

 directions for the minutiae of the process when detail- 

 ing the process as applicable to cuttings from forced 

 shoots, and observing that plants obtained from cut- 

 tings taken from the root in March are the best and 

 most robust. 



Forced Propagation. — The usual, because most 

 productive, mode of propagating the dahlia is by 

 placing its tubers in a good bottom-heat early in the 

 spring, and then planting in pots either the shoots 

 they emit, or cuttings from these. 



The editor of " The Gardener and Florist" has 

 observed, very correctly, that there are two or three 

 rules which ought to be attended to in sending out 

 plants thus raised. First, the grower to do any good 

 with them should have them well rooted by the 20th 

 of May. Secondly, they should be plants struck 

 from original shoots of the tuber, and not tops or 

 sides. Thirdly, they should be a week in a cold 

 frame, merely saved from frost, before they are sent 

 out. Nurserymen have a light to do what they like 

 with their own, but all beyond this places the charac- 

 ter of a flower in jeopardy. If a florist chooses to 

 run this risk himself, well ; but if he lets out dry 

 roots, he is at the mercy of every hungry propagator ; 



