12 



style thread-shaped ; stigmas somewhat spreading, 

 pubescent. Seeds solitary, shaped like the germen. 

 Receptacle flat, chaffy ; the scales large, the middle 

 ones keeled, the rest flat. Down none. 



Although the stems are too tender to endure the 

 low temperatures of our winters, yet they are not 

 strictly annual, for, we find that, in the mild climate 

 of Devonshire, Mr. Murray, gardener at Taymouth 

 Castle, had in the gardens there early in July, 1845, 

 two dahlias, (Phenomenon and Andrew Hofer.) in 

 full bloom, after having withstood the winter's cold, 

 in the open air, preserving their previous year's stems 

 and foliage. (Gard. Chron. 1845, 562.) 



VARIETIES. 



Every autumn of the last thirty years has added to 

 numbers of our superior varieties, so that now they 

 amount to many hundreds, and each characterised by 

 some peculiarity of size, habit, form, and colour. It is 

 satisfactory to the physiological botanist to find that, 

 notwithstanding the great diversity of colour thus exhi- 

 bited, still the conclusion arrived at by M. De Candolle 

 remains intact. We have seen, as stated in a previous 

 page, that he concluded upon scientific data that a blue 

 dahlia would not be produced by the florist, and cer- 



