^ HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 21 
country ; while at Slougli and Highbury the Metropolitans were again in 
their wonted position, and earned the highest honors ; 
They won them all well, and may they wear them long. 
I think I have enumerated a tolerable list of casualties (to use a word 
now become too familiar), which have befallen the "burden of my song" 
this year. With all these drawbacks can it be said the Dahlia has been 
worse shown than usual? To "speak the whole truth," perhaps we must 
answer generally. Yes. But whoever saw the two noble collections from 
Norwich, which at Brighton completely distanced all competitors, will 
speak "nothing but the truth," in replying to the query with a special and 
emphatic No. On the whole, I think we may safely infer that the past 
season has shown an advance in the cultivation of the Dahlia. I doubt if 
two such collections of twenty-four blooms, as those I have alluded to, were 
ever before put together by amateurs. It is worthy of remark, in the 
review we are now taking, that as a general rule amateurs have exhibited 
better this year than nurserymen. This is an individual opinion [valeat 
quantum), and can be expected to be received with only partial assent. 
With respect to the disposition of colors, I must in candor confess that 
little, if any, improvement is visible. Let me once again request the earnest 
attention of exhibitors to this important subject. 
It is a fact well known to florists that each variety of any given flower 
has its own peculiar season ; and that while all are more or less beautiful, 
there are certain circumstances — not always understood — under which 
individual kinds shine forth with more than usual splendor, or sink into 
comparative insignificance. The Dahlia is no exception. It may therefore 
not be altogether a waste of time if we take a rapid glance at the varieties 
which have been most seen at the exhibitions of the present year, not for- 
getting a passing thought of those, "though absent, not forgot," which have 
perhaps been missed from their accustomed places. To accomplish this the 
more readily, I propose — in the first place — to allude to the sorts in the 
hands of the public up to the present year. These it will be convenient to 
separate into two classes : 1st, the varieties in cultivation prior to 1853 ; 
and 2ndly, those sent out in the spring of that year. Of the Dahlias of 
185.4 I shall say a word or two on a future occasion. 1st, " Like angels' 
visits, few and far between," are the glimpses we have caught of Alice ; but 
when she does condescend to appear, her beauty is unsurpassed. Annie 
Salter has somewhat emerged from the cloud which obscured her last year, 
though she can scarcely be said to have realized the expectations raised on 
