By Mr. William Smith. 



145 



palese of the receptacle, the former being much larger, and 

 generally dark green. 



Description of a Good Double Dahlia. 



The flower should be fully double, always filling the centre ; 

 the florets should be entire or nearly so, pointed or rounded, 

 reflexed, and so forming a globular head, regular in their dis- 

 position, each series overlapping the other backwards ; they 

 may be either plain, or quilled, but never distorted ;* if in- 

 stead of being reflexed, the florets are recurved, the flower 

 will be equally symmetrical. The peduncles ought to be 

 sufficiently strong to keep the blossoms erect and conse- 

 quently well exposed to view, and, long enough to show the 

 flowers free of the loaves ; if they are a little pendulous in 

 the taller growing sorts, they will have a more elegant ap- 

 pearance. The plant ought to flower early and abundantly, 

 and retain its characters until the end of the season. Bright 

 and deep velvety colours are most admired. 



As the tall sorts are in many respects objectionable on ac- 

 count of their coarse habit of growth, it is necessary to be 

 more scrupulous in the selection of good varieties of them. 

 As the dwarfs, on the other hand, possess advantages which 

 the others do not, a greater licence may be assumed in 

 preserving some of them in a collection. Flowers of dwarf 

 varieties having large massive heads, but with a prominent 

 yellow disc, if the colours are brilliant, are as much approved 



* I do not wish by giving this character to condemn all the varieties that are 

 not perfectly regular, there being many sorts which are much admired, that 

 have no pretensions to regularity ; and as the opinion of the beauty of any par- 

 ticular flower depends entirely upon the fancy of the person that beholds it, 

 ragged and even distorted flowers may be regarded as beautiful by some, and 

 ought not therefore to be excluded from a general collection. 



VOL. VII. U 



