JOURNAL 



OF THE 



Royal Horticultural Society. 



Vol. XIII. 1801. 



DAHLIA CONFERENCE. 



September 23, 1890. 



A Conference on Dahlias was held at the Chiswick Gardens 

 on Tuesday, September 23. The chair was taken by Harry 

 Turner, Esq., F.E.H.S., President of the Conference, who in 

 opening the proceedings said that, looking at the number of the 

 papers which were to be read that afternoon and the high 

 authority with which the several readers of them would speak, 

 he as Chairman would be consulting the best interests of all 

 concerned by making no opening address, but by simply calling 

 on Mr. Shirley Hibberd to read the first paper. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE FLORIST'S DAHLIA. 



By the late Mr. Shirley Hibberd, F.R.H.S. 



The formation of a florist's flower affords so much direct infor- 

 mation on the biology of vegetable reproduction that any searching 

 study of the subject is likely to be well rewarded. The late Mr. 

 Charles Darwin necessarily gave the subject some attention, but, 

 being far removed in his pursuits and tastes from floriculture, he 

 depended much more upon replies obtained to questions he pro- 

 posed to a few distinguished florists than to any observations of 

 his own. Even by this slender second-hand system he acquired 

 a vast amount of knowledge, which he employed to good purpose 

 in those masterly generalisations that render his books of present 

 value and immortal fame. If hie had applied his penetrating 

 genius to the subject before us, many points that are now obscure 

 would doubtless have been made plain, and the little that I can 



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