140 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



be ready for cutting, i.e. when they are 2-4 inches high. Cut them off with 

 a sharp knife, including a small bit of the tuber (fig. 42). Fresh shoots 

 will develop, which can be taken off, after a couple of months. Plant in 

 thumb-pots in good sandy leaf-mould. Mark each parent tuber and 

 corresponding cuttings with name or number of variety. Put all the pots 

 clcse together in a hotbed, 15°-20° C. (60°-70° Fahr.) ; keep moist and 

 shaded ; the cuttings will strike in about three weeks. Repot in 3-inch 

 pots in a cooler frame ; when rooted again cool off by gradually opening 

 the frame.— F. A. W. 



Dahlias : Grafting 1 to obtain Multicoloured Blooms. By 



M. Lombartrix (Le Jar din, vol. xxi. No. 483, p. 103 ; April 5, 1907). — 

 Rivoire's method of grafting (as described below) can be modified in 

 various directions — notably for the production of multicoloured dahlias — ■ 

 by inserting a number of grafts from different varieties into one tuber. 

 One plant of ' Etoile du Diable ' in this way bore nine varieties of blooms, 

 of distinct colours, flowering from August to October. This particular 

 plant was kept under a shaded bell-glass for some days till the grafts 

 had struck. The rest were plunged in a cold house, and shaded and 

 watered till well rooted in twenty to twenty-five days, and subsequently 

 potted or planted out. These grafts were made in March ; the method 

 succeeds perfectly in the open air in August if shaded. — F. A. W. 



Dahlias, Grafts Of. By Rivoire pere et fils (Le Jardin, vol. xxi. 

 No. 482, p. 85 ; 1 fig. ; March 20, 1907). — Strongly recommended for 

 pot culture. Choose large tubers of previous year. Slice off top to 

 remove all eyes, and make V-shaped slit on one side. Take a cutting 

 prepared as above but trimmed into a wedge to fit the groove. Bind 

 with raphia, cover with putty. Put in hot frame and shade well, even 

 when the plants are cooled off. These plants make roots but no tubers, 

 so they cannot be utilised a second year. If tubers should be formed 

 they do not come true to the variety. — F. A. W. 



Dahlias: Propagation by Seed and Division. By Rivoire 



(Le Jardin, xxi. No. 480, p. 55 ; February 20, 1907).— The seed of single 

 dahlias should be sown February- April in a hot-bed or cool house. 

 Use clean pots with plenty of drainage, and fill up to h inch from the 

 top. Sow the seeds at this level, not more than J in. deep. Keep the 

 pots moist, watering with a fine rose so as not to disturb the seedlings. 

 Germination takes place in about twelve days, according to temperature. 

 When the soedlings produce four leaves they must be pricked out 

 separately into 8-inch pots, with good soil, and treated as described in 

 the next abstract on cuttings. Division of tubers is not advisable, since 

 it leads to rapid degeneration, and accounts for much disappointment 

 when the choice varieties purchased lose their characteristics. When 

 resorted to, large tubers from the previous year should be planted in 

 the hottest part of the garden at the end of April or early in May. Bury, 

 but let the neck project just beyond the soil. Keep a mat handy to 

 throw over in case of frost. Take up about the middle of May and 

 divide off each shoot with its proportion of root and tuber ; then plant 

 out.— F. A. Th 



