20 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the days when he grew these flowers it was the custom to plant 

 strong roots, and from these, plants to the height of eight or 

 twelve feet were produced. If plants like this were wanted now 

 the same means should be adopted. The plants are dwarfed by 

 being obtained from cuttings, this method imposing a check on 

 the growth. 



Mr. E. Mawley, F.K.H.S., said : I think we are all indebted 

 to Mr. Girdlestone for his excellent paper. I took a great 

 interest in the Dahlia for some time, and I think it is very im- 

 portant to consider as to what are the best qualities of the plant. 

 I am afraid we are not quite in agreement as to what they are 

 in the Cactus or Single types. Mr. Girdlestone is the Secretary 

 of the Dahlia Society, and it would be well to bring out a 

 catalogue of the best Dahlias in all the sections, and then we 

 should be in a better position to know them. There is one point 

 I should like to draw attention to in connection with the Single 

 Dahlias, and that is that by taking off the seed-pods as they 

 appear the plants are kept in a better condition, and will con- 

 tinue to bear a mass of bloom until the frosts destroy them. 



Mr. Gikdlestone, replying to the remarks of Mr. Hibberd 

 as to plants being larger if grown from the root-stocks, said that 

 had not been his experience. The height of Dahlias did not 

 always depend on the method of propagation, and he had abun- 

 dant evidence of this in his own garden. Plants are propagated 

 from cuttings and from seed in the spring, and there is no dis- 

 tinction between the plants to show which were propagated from 

 cuttings and which from old roots. The stature of a variety is 

 inherent in it, and if it grow to a certain height it will always 

 retain it, the variability being exceedingly small. If you observe 

 a number of Dahlias of one kind in a row, you can place a rod 

 all along, and it will touch each plant. He was of opinion that 

 the Dahlia had been dwarfed by cultivators. In reference to 

 taking off the seed-pods, as mentioned by Mr. Mawley, he said 

 that if the single-flowered Dahlias were allowed to carry their 

 seed-pods the plants would go quite to rest in the endeavour to 

 ripen up the seeds. 



Mr. Cheal said his experience of Dahlias was that seedlings 

 increased in height for the first year or two, and then remained 

 at the point they had reached. We hear that the Dahlia is a 

 variable plant, and it has been proved to be so. Those of us who 



