bly, and indeed probably, increase till varieties shall 
have been secured whose height, when in flower, 
will not exceed a foot.” Should this anticipa- 
tion be realized, the introduction of the Dahlia 
may indeed, extend even to the parterre of rarer 
beauties ; from which, by its gigantic growth, it is 
now completely excluded. 
Like the Dahlia variabilis, or common garden 
species, the present one may be raised from seeds, 
in spring, to flower in the succeeding autumn. It 
need not be mentioned, that to sow the seeds early, 
that is, in the latter part of February, or beginning 
of March, and to hasten the growth of the plants 
by a hotbed, will be advantageous, by bringing 
them into flower, so as to secure the maturity of 
their seeds before the approach of winter. 
It is desirable that in the future culture of this 
plant, improvement in its flowers should be effected. 
The probable means of doing so are two-fold — hy- 
bridization with the best varieties of the common 
species, a mode by which success would be almost 
certain ; and raising seedlings without hybridizing, 
in the hope of obtaining semi-double flowers, and 
from these, others of still more perfect formation — 
(or imperfect, as the vegetable physiologist may 
say, seeing that the transformation desired by the 
florist, is an intrusion on the law of nature.) Of 
the circumstances which produce this change in 
composite flowers — transforming the florets of the 
disk into the form of those of the ray, nothing is 
definitely known; healthy growth, and the excite- 
ment of one flower by cutting off others near it, 
may probably forward the change. 
