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XIX. Observations on the Culture of the Dahlias, in the 

 northern Farts of Great Britain,^ *c. In a Letter to 

 Richard Anthony Salisbury, Esq. F. R. S. $c. By 

 John Wedgwood, Esq. F. II. S. 



Read November 1, 1808. 



Dear Sir, 



1 hinking that a few practical remarks on those highly 

 beautiful flowers, the Dahlias, in a climate more severe Than 

 that about London, will not prove unacceptable, I offer the 

 following to your perusal ; should they in your opinion tend 

 to give a truer notion of their culture, you will perhaps com- 

 municate them to the Horticultural Society. 



I consider these plants about as hardy as the Potatoe, and 

 have no doubt that in Devonshire, they may be quite natural- 

 ized. Here in Staffordshire, however, our winters are colder 

 and longer, as well as the aggregate heat of summer less. 



In the spring of 1807, I became possessed of three small 

 plants of the Sambucifolia, v. e. purpurea, Bidentifolia, v. a . 

 crocata, and Bidentifolia, v. 0. coccinea, in pots. About Mid- 

 summer I planted them in an open border, in a stiff clayey 

 soil ; they grew very fast, but had not flowered, when a sharp 

 frost, about the middle of September, quite destroyed their 

 foliage. They were immediately taken up, potted, and re- 

 moved to a conservatory, where they continued vegetating 

 during the whole of winter without shewing any appearance 

 of flowers. 



In the middle of May, 1808, they were planted out in a 



