808 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October S, 1S»4. 
in the doubles, and even if they had they are more at the mercy of 
the fierce rays of the sun, as it strikes them back and front at 
different hours of the day. On the other hand, the sun can but catch 
a small portion of the petals in a double Dahlia, as one protects or 
shades the other. I therefore find one lasts at least six times as long 
as the other. 2, I may call a second defect malformation. There 
has been an unusual tendency for single Dahlias to produce blooms 
this year minus a floret, or with one or more incomplete. This I admit 
may be owing to the dry season or the ground not sufficiently rich ; 
but 1 have scores growing alternately in the same border with such 
Show and Fancy varieties as Sir Garnet Wolseley, Mrs. Kelway, James 
Vick, William Rawlings, Thomas Goodwin, and John Keynes say 
among the former, and Miss Browning, Queen of Beauties, Jessie 
McIntosh, Eccentric, John Lament, and Chorister among the latter. 
Those named are regularly packed, so to speak, with florets ; indeed, 
James Vick and Sir Garnet never by any possibility expand the 
whole of them, so from the alternate position I have an opportunity 
of comparison. Until the last heavy rains the singles rarely came 
perfect. Last year, while they came more frequently complete in 
shape and petal, they were more subject to injury from slugs. As 
most people find from experience, those dainty marauders prefer the 
blooms of a handsome Paragon, White Queen, Sunset, Clytie, Mr. 
Teesdale, or Harlequin to the finest foliage ; while, on the other 
hand, if a piece of a petal is taken from any of the doubles by a 
voracious slug or earwig at even a short distance it is unobserved, 
while the beautiful formation of the single is spoiled. 
Lastly, I may refer to the bad staging qualities of the petals for show 
or bouquet purposes. At Dunmore East, for instance, the other judges 
and myself w'ere greatly struck by the appearance of the stand of 
single Dahlias presented as compared with Mr. Saunders’ stand of 
forty-eight doubles beside them. 1 drew the attention of the Secretary 
to the matter, and he said they were cut the evening before, and 
that they could not stand the heat ; but the doubles beside them had 
been cut twice as long, and had to travel from Cork, 150 miles. 
Upon this point 1 am afraid there can be no question. They will 
never be good exhibition flowers, and are altogether unsuitable for 
going a distance except some system of gumming is resorted to. 
I ought, perhaps, to make an exception, as I have a seedling this 
year, a cross between White Victory and Harlequin, that does not 
drop its petals, and is of a peculiar colour. It grows rather dwarf 
(about 18 inches high) and very floriferous. The body colour is 
white, lightly tinted in front with rosy-lilac, and heavily tinted lilac 
on the back. The petals are flat, form a perfect circle, as I think 
every single Dahlia ought to do, and is parJy reflexed. The flower 
of this withers and turns back completely on the stalk. 
I cannot remember seeing single Dahlias effectively used in 
bouquets except in a few cases, one being at Curraghmore, the 
residence of the Marquis of Waterford, where a light combination of 
about half a dozen different coloured blooms was tastefully mixed 
with Adiantums in an old china vase, having a slightly dimmed 
background. They are perfectly useless in the ordinary bouquet, 
except one may be permitted to lie flat on the top, and then will be 
sure to hide something better. I should be sorry to see single Dahlias 
again lost to general cultivation ; yet, if my memory serves me, neither 
at the National Dahlia Show nor at the Royal Horticultural have any 
first-class certificates been awarded to them this year. Well, this is 
ominous; but living at this distance I may be mistaken. However, 
though we have some good ones likely to outlive most of us, why not 
strive for something better ? Criticism never does a good plant any 
harm, and the foregoing observations are written in that sense.— 
W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
[A beautiful single variety, Formosa, exhibited by Messrs. Cheal 
and Son, was certificated at the Royal Horticultural Society’s meeting, 
September 9th, this year, and described on page 249.] 
NOTES ON FLOWERS. 
This has, on the whole, heen a glorious season; so fine has it been 
that the farmers are grumbling because they have nothing to grumble 
about. It is true that the want of rain once or twice told prejudicially 
against some crops, and had the effect of entirely destroying the beauty 
of herbaceous borders, and up to th's time these have not improved 
much ; but ordinary bedding plants have been all that could be desired. 
Pelargoniums have bloomed without a break, and the growth is of a 
character to lead us to hope to see them for many weeks as full of bloom 
as they have been in the past. Calceolarias have flowered continuously 
since July, but these have been eclipsed in brightness by the Viola named 
Sovereign, an old kind, but up to this time unsurpassed as a hedder. 
Another old sort has been charming—this is Golden Perpetual, which 
seems to have been thrust aside for newer though no better varieties. 
But the palm for effect must be awarded to Duchess of Sutherland Viola, 
the beauty of which it is impossible to describe. We have white-leaved 
Pelargoniums dotted thinly among the Violas ; but the latter have grown 
so freely and flowered so closely and unintermittently as to cover the 
former, and we have not had the heart to interfere with the self-made 
arrangements of the too-encroaching Duchess. 
What a rich effect Henry Jacoby Pelargonium has in the mass ! 
However, it has the same fardt as all large-trussing sorts show here—too 
few trusses are produced. The smaller trussers are much to be preferred 
as producers of what may he called colour en hloc. Nevertheless, taking 
it with what I have called this fault, it is well worth growing. Some 
double Ivy-leaf Pelargoniums have done so well in vases that next yeir 
they are to be tried as edging plants. These are, in all their varieties, 
well deserving attention. 
Single Dahlias have been prominently planted—the old White pegged 
down in lines, the others tied to stakes. Our old friend Alba has trium¬ 
phantly maintained the pre-eminence. At the present time the plants are 
well covered with large flowers, and are very effective. The great fault 
of many single Dahlias is their not blooming freely. We never can 
command over four to six open flowers at a time on many of them, and, 
individually pretty though these are, they are of little value for decorating 
a garden set in the midst of hundreds of acres of grass and trees. Two 
yellow varieties, respectively named Canary and Yellow Boy, are good 
and free-flowering. A scarlet variety named Sunbeam we also think 
much of. 
One of our greatest regrets this year is the collapse of Phloxes. The 
dry weather was too much for them, and they do not look as if they 
would get the better of their trial this season. But as a set-off the warm 
weather has brought on Gladioli much earlier than usual, and we have 
had a fine display right through August, though, of course, many are still 
left to carry us on through the present month. Damp nights and warm 
days are just what Gladioli delight in, and of both they had a large 
amount. We are almost sure to get all our bulbs well ripened this season. 
White China Asters suggest the thought that Chrysanthemums are not 
wanted so long as we can obtain these. Bunches in florists’ shops are 
undistinguishable at a short distance from Chrysanthemums, and are 
equally beautiful. 
Herbaceous arrangements were grand up to the middle of July. Since 
then I have been obliged to assume a slightly apologetic tone when re¬ 
ferring to them. By the way, what a good thing an Index Expnrgatorius 
of these would be. So many poor plants have been sold of late years 
that unsuspecting customers have had a sorry time of it. It requires a 
very rigid selection, and perhaps an efficient plan would be to name 
plants not worth growing.—N. B. 
VERONICAS. 
Besides being a very extensive genus, including as it does many 
very fine evergreen shrubs from New Zealand, this is of no inconsiderable 
garden value owing to the variety of form and the various uses to which 
they may be put in making our beds and borders attractive. The ever¬ 
greens referred to, although not absolutely hardy in all situations, may 
be kept through very severe winters with a little care in the choice of a 
position. V. chathamica is one of the beat prostrate-habited species, 
seldom, ven when strong-growing, rising more than 6 inches above the 
stones over which it loves to scramble. V. Hulkeana, with its graceful 
panicles of bluish white flowers, has stood the last two winters well. It 
has formed quite a bush, and seems capable of enduring any severe 
weather. V. epacridea, which may easily be mistaken for a Pimelea, is 
a pretty rockery plant, as also is V. Haasti, V. diosmmfolia, V. salicor- 
noides, and others ; but among the strictly herbaceous species none equal 
the handsome V. subsessilis, represented in the annexed engraving. 
It is by botanists considered only a variety of V. longifolia, so common 
in every cottager’s garden ; but for garden purposes it seems to us 
distinct enough to deserve the name given above. A native of Japan, 
though unlike most Japanese plants, it is perfectly hardy even in ex¬ 
posed situations, and is likely to obtain a permanent place in the flower 
border. It grows about 2 or more feet in height, forming very dense 
spikes of charming large deep blue flowers, which make it a very effective 
and desirable plant. It may be propagated by division of the roots. 
—M. S. 
NOTTS NOTES. 
It is curious to notice how Apples and Pears are fruiting this year, 
I have been very much exercised by the peculiarity of the disposition of 
Apples and Pears in our orchard this season. I have tried to And outi 
reason for this peculiarity, but I am obliged to say that I have not been 
able to arrive at a satisfactory one yet. I can get one that will do up to 
a certain point, then there is a break, and I have to begin again. There 
is only one thing that I am certain about, and as that is patent to every¬ 
body who goes into the orchard it does not say much for my penetration 
that that is the only thing that I have discovered re the Apple crop of 
1884. I may as well say that the one thing that I have found out which 
has helped us in having a few Apples this year is shelter on the north 
and north-east sides. Of course everybody knows that shelter is necessary 
to an orchard on the north and east side of it, hence my discovery is 
robbed of its originality. I notice, however, that if everybody knows 
about it they do not carry out that knowledge in practice, because I can , 
