PAPEES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
321 
DAHLIAS GROWN DWARP. 
Tpie dahlia varies so much in its habit, that 
what would do well for one sort, would be im- 
practicable with another. Thedahlia, to bekept 
dwarf, should be selected of a short-jointed ha- 
bit, with short footstalks to the flowers. Take 
the plant young, plant it at one end of the bed 
it is to fill, or if a large bed, plant the proper 
number of dahlias at one end, or one side, and 
always in the lowest part if there be any dif- 
ference ; lay it into the ground sloping, and 
cover the root well ; then peg the stem to the 
ground; if there be any side-shoots already, 
peg them right and left of the centre or main 
stem, an^ as straight out as they can be forced 
without breaking. As the plants proceed, 
continue to peg down, and in this way cover 
the bed. You wall find no difficulty in doing 
this with a little gentle coercion, using at first 
pegs that will hold them a little down, and by 
increasing the force. Cut away all that are 
too stubborn and cannot be laid down. When 
the dahlia is Avell laid, the bloom does not 
come half the height that the plant would 
have grown if unconstrained, and this kind of 
treatment is capital on slopes, or banks that 
want covering in the most effective manner. 
By the time the plant covers a good sj^ace, it 
begins to bloom, and it lasts a good while in 
perfection ; it flowers with much less water, 
and much greater effect than any other kind 
w^ould accomplish. Much depends upon the 
selection of a good short-jointed sort of plant, 
and a decided brilliant colour, for when in full 
bloom thei'e is a mass of flowers that may be 
seen from afar. On slopes the growth is 
much more rapid than when the ground is 
quite flat, because you can appropriate any 
branch, which you cannot when the ground is 
level. 
HIBISCUS MANIHOT. 
This extraordinary flower once excited the 
surprise of many at the exhibitions, from its 
immense size and its odd colour. It may seem 
odd to call a flower as large as a plate, because 
there are plates of all sizes. "We have seen the 
flowers of the present subject nine inches 
across the bloom, which is perfectly round 
and flat, of a buff-yellow, with a remarkably 
black centre or throat ; we have had this from 
seeds which were imported from the East 
Indies, but the plant is of old standing. The 
seeds Avere sown in a common hot-bed, the 
plants soon potted into the size forty-eight, 
and as they advanced they were shifted until 
they were in size twenty-four, after which we 
began to consider them cumbersome, and as 
Ave knew nothing of them and they had 
reached six or eight feet, they were placed 
behind the pit, in the stove, where they re- 
50. 
mained unnoticed until one morning they 
were seen to have produced four or six im- 
mense yellow flowers, with black centres. 
The flowers closed at four o'clock, and never 
opened again ; a succession of blooms came 
on, and Ave more than once or twice got a 
plant to an exhibition in good order, and it 
Avas greatly admired — not for its beauty, for 
the plants Avere gawky in consequence of 
being neglected. The next season, hoAvever, 
we cut them down, and re-potted them, Avhen 
they branched out a good deal, looked very 
much more attractive, and Avere generally ad- 
mired ; but the ephemeral nature of the flower 
disappointed us two or three times, and we 
never attempted to carry them about after- 
Avards. There is no difficulty in cultivating 
this plant, and it seeds freely. It Avill strike 
from eyes cut Avith half an inch of stem 
to them, and also may be propagated from 
cuttings and suckers. It is a stove herbaceous 
perennial, Avorth anybody's cultivating in a 
roomy stove, but not adapted for limited 
collections, for these should not contain a 
single plant that is not either curious or beau- 
tiful at all times of the year; whereas the 
Hibiscus llanihot is an uncouth groAver at 
the best, and is not even interesting, except 
Avhile the floAvers are out, and there are scarcely 
ever two out at once on the same plant. 
An Abstract of Reports, Papers, and 
Proceedings op the Horticultural 
Society of London, with Notes by 
F.I-I.S. 
The Early purple Brocoll — The Bro- 
coli, of which I now offer some account, is 
reported to have been introduced from the 
Cape of Good Hope, by the Hon. Mar.maduke 
DaAvnay, and first cultivated in Surrey, Avhere 
it is called the Early Cape Brocoli. Packets of 
seed, first sent here from Italy, appear to me 
to have produced the same vai'iety. My 
method of treating it is as follows. Three 
crops are sown annually : the first between 
the 12th and 18th of April ; a second be- 
tAveen the 18th and 24th of May ; the third 
betvA-een the 19th and 25th of August : these 
successive crops supply the family from Sep- 
tember till the end of May. The seeds are 
scattered exceedingly thin, in a border of 
very rich light earth. Not a Aveed is suf- 
fered to appear, and Avhen the young plants 
have from eight to ten leaves, which is in 
about a month, they are finally planted out 
at the distance of two feet every Avay, in a 
piece of sandy loans, which has been well 
prepared for the purpose by digging and 
enriching it with a large proportion of very 
rotten dung, frequently turned over to pick 
y 
