stage for the past thirty years, and the type is still showing marked improvement each year. 
Where it will end no one can say. The type embraces all of the colors of the other 
types, in size from the small Pompon to the diameter of nine inches, some with petals as 
narrow as a blade of grass, giving the flowers more the appearance of a chrysanthemum 
than a Dahlia. At first, the type was deficient in stems, they being rather short and 
stiff or thin and weakly, but in recent years much improvement has been made and there 
are a goodly number now with fine stems, twelve to eighteen inches long, which hold the 
flower quite erect. And while the stem is under discussion, it might be in place to say 
that some of the weaker stem varieties, while useless as a cut flower, are yet very valuable 
for garden plants. A drooping stem permits the flower to swing free of the plant, and 
when combined with the dark green foliage, presents a picture of wonderful grace, not 
seen in the more erect growing plants. 
In quite recent years, a new form has become immensely popular, the Peony flowered 
type. They first became popular in Holland, and in a few years became popular through- 
out the world. They vary somewhat in form and embrace all the colors known in other 
types. As a class they have better stems and keeping qualities than the Cactus type. 
At the present time (1916) this type gives promise of surpassing all other varieties in 
popular favor. This type and the preceding one are here treated at some length be- 
cause of their popularity. 
SPORTS. 
The Dahlia has always been notorious for its sportive habits, and many and curious 
are the freaks to be seen. This is true not only of variegated varieties but sometimes ap- 
pearing among varieties supposed to be quite staid and fixed in their colors. 
Some of the Fancy varieties are very popular because of this wide variance in color, 
which keeps the grower guessing what is coming next ; but while sports are common as 
stated above, yet all attempts to fix a sport into a new variety, have been fruitless, for 
sooner or later, they return to the parent color. 
New seedlings should not be placed on the market hastily. Several years is usually 
required to ascertain the true nature of a new Dahlia. For instance, a new seedling may 
show gay red and white markings and may give promise of a fine Fancy variety, but the 
next year and all succeeding years, it may show white so rarely that it would not be proper 
to class it as a variegated variety. Then again, there are physical weaknesses which 
may develop in the plant. So it is not wise to place a new variety on the market short of 
three years trial, and then only the very best should be saved, as there are by far too many 
varieties on the market now. 
COLORS. 
The Dahlia is rich in color, especially reds, scarlets, yellows, bronze and purple. 
Clear pink, white and lavendar are often met but are not so common as the five first 
mentioned colors. Of combinations of color, there seem to be an endless supply, and one 
would think that somewhere in the manifold combinations of colors and lints, we would 
find the blue, yet so far as is known, no blue has ever been developed. 
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