:338 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



JUDGING DAHLIAS, ESPECIALLY THOSE OF THE 

 CACTUS SECTION. 



By Chas. Geo. Wyatt, F.R.H.S. 



1\ view of the greatly extended culture of the Dahlia, and especially of 

 the Cactus Section, and of the increase, therefore, of the number of ex- 

 hibitors of the flower, I think all must admit that the proper judging of 

 them is a matter of great importance, for as exhibitors become more 

 numerous the competition must of necessity be more and more keen, 

 and the reason for an award well denned and explicable. 



A person becomes enthusiastic in the culture of Dahlias, and if it 

 continue, his enthusiasm is almost sure sooner or later to enlist him in 

 the fighting army — the army of exhibitors — and such a one will very 

 naturally ask, What are the special features about the flower, apart from 

 the rather vague expression " beauty," which will gain favour in the eyes 

 of the judges and tend to make the exhibitor also a prize-winner? 



All exhibitors will agree with me that at present there is very little 

 to guide one, and especially a beginner, in the selection of the flowers to 

 show, and that very much of the merit of a Cactus Dahlia is left to the 

 personal and individual taste of the judges; tastes which oftener than 

 not are entirely unknown to the exhibitors ; and one can quite imagine 

 in a close competition an award being given to one or other of the stands 

 in which some flowers, or some special features about them, which happen 

 to be in favour with the judges, predominate. One judge may think size 

 of chief importance, and there are many such ; another will allow bright 

 colour to influence his decision ; another some other property. The 

 award may be perfectly correct, but in the absence of any code for judging, 

 a great weight is laid on the responsibility of the judges and a great deal 

 of insecurity on the fate of the exhibitors. 



This state of things and the keener competition we may reasonably 

 expect as time goes on make it of the utmost importance that some 

 well-defined code or set of rules be issued on the authority of the Eoyal 

 Horticultural Society or by the National Dahlia Society, or, better still, by 

 both combined, whereby an exhibitor may know exactly in what way his 

 Bowers will be judged, what properties in the flowers will give him the 

 best chance of winning a prize, and what defects will lessen his chance of 

 so doing. 



And not only from an exhibitor's standpoint is this set of rules a 

 necessity, but equally so from that of the judges, for they would materially 

 I l'ii'i in giving an unbiassed decisional decision uninfluenced by any 

 individual tasb ; lie would be able to point to the rules in question as his 

 Authority lor the decision he gave, and exhibitors would be, or ought to be, 

 fully cognisant of them. 



