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the same species vegetating at the same time upon a 

 poorer soil ; and we have also observed, that fancy 

 dahlias, in which white predominates, growing on a 

 rich soil, have in every flower more of the dark colour 

 peculiar to them, than the specimens growing on less 

 fertile ground. But where the dark colour predomi- 

 nates, this is liable to vary, and to give way to the paler 

 colour associated with it in the florets, when cultivated 

 on a poorer soil. 



We have little doubt but that it was a dahlia with 

 white or other light colour predominating, which was 

 the subject of the experiments mentioned by a writer 

 in Hovey's "Magazine of Horticulture." He says, 

 that striped dahlias will be best kept clean by planting 

 them in poor soil, while rich soil invariably runs 

 them. He relates the following experiment with a 

 variety called Striata formosissi?na, in which he is 

 confirmed by Mr. Hovey, who says he has the same 

 results. No. 1, planted in poor, gravelly soil, in an 

 open situation, had all the flowers but two beautifully 

 mottled. No. 2, planted upon a rich, cool, sandy 

 loam, had not one-half of its flowers mottled. No 3, 

 three plants in a soil very highly enriched, had every 

 bloom but one self-coloured. 



Change of Form, — Fancy dahlias are quite as 

 liable to this variation as to mutability of colour, 

 and it is quite, if not more singular than variation of 

 colour. The complete difference which is often ob- 



