THE FLOWER GARDEN 



885 



flowers. Few plants are more readily propagated, by al- 

 most every mode, than the dahlia. By seeds they are in- 

 creased, both in number and variety, with the greatest ease. 

 The seeds ripen with us in most seasons ; each flower pro- 

 ducing, as is the case with most plants of the class Si/ngenesia, 

 a number of perfect seeds. 



The seeds are collected in September, by which time, in 

 most seasons, many of them will be ripe. The preference 

 should be given to seeds from dwarf plants, where the object 

 is not to have varieties of the taller sorts ; and seeds from 

 semi-double flowers are more likely to produce double varieties 

 than those of single ones. Opinions have been offered, that 

 seeds from such florets of the disc which may have altered their 

 form, may be more apt to produce double flowers, than such 

 as may have retained their original form. 



The seeds should be sown by the first of April upon a 

 slight hot-bed, and when up, and sufficiently strong, potted 

 into small pots, where they should remain in a gentle heat 

 ' till the first of May, when they may be gradually hardened by 

 exposure, to be fit for planting out in the open ground by 

 the end of that month, where many of them will produce their 

 flowers the same season. Those which may then be judged 

 of sufficient merit, may be taken up in autumn, and the less 

 valuable thrown away. 



By cuttings of the young shoots, dahlias may be propagated 

 freely, and by this means produce tubers and flowers the 

 same year. By dividing the roots, they may also be propa- 

 gated; and this operation will be safest performed after the 

 roots have been potted and in a brisk heat for a few days. 

 When vegetation becomes excited, the rudiments of the young 

 shoots will be observed bursting through the crown of the 

 roots ; at such time, with a knife, divide the roots into as many 

 parts as convenient, without injuring the tubers ; each piece 

 having a bud or young shoot springing from its crown, will 

 be a perfect plant, and may be either repotted or planted out 

 in the open ground. 



B?/ grafihig : dahlias may be propagated by this operation 

 as well as most strong-growing herbaceous plants having solid 

 stems; although this species of propagation be new with us, 



