102 
THE FLORIST. 
could never be beaten ; but it does not ajypear so perfect now, simply 
because Lord Bath is a great deal better in the same way and adds, 
“ in all my experience I do not know of any varieties of the plants* 
you name that have degenerated; they are simply by degrees, and 
almost imperceptibly, surpassed with newer and better kinds.” 
We consider the reviewer has established no proof that the Dahlia is 
degenerating ; we have evidence that the Springfield Rival was 
equally good at the last as when in its hey-day of popularity. We 
saw, ourselves, at the September exhibition at the Crystal Palace, the 
Essex Triumph, a very old dark Dahlia, in the principal winning 
stand. This Dahlia has kept its ground for so many years owdng to 
its perfect centre—it, too, is now being superseded. But to say that for 
this reason it is degenerating is altogether a fallacy; the constitutional 
vigour of the plant is unimpaired, it is simply beaten in the 'properties 
of its bloom. 
It would be too much to suppose that among the many thousand 
hybrids which annually spring into existence a certain proportion of 
them may not have constitutions weaker than their parents, and may 
in consequence be shorter lived, and we further admit this proportion 
may increase as a course of artificial treatment and careless crossing is 
pursued ; but we cannot take such cases—purely incidental—as 
affording any evidence on which to base the theory of the degeneracy 
of races in plants. 
(To he continued.) 
PETUNIA IMPERIALIS. 
Should you think the following worthy of a place in your pages I will 
feel greatly obliged, for I have frequently heard this double white 
Petunia unfavourably spoken of. Some time ago a nurseryman’s 
traveller called here and pronounced it useless. I told him I was of a 
different opinion, and pointed to a specimen of it four feet high and 
three feet wide, trained on a flat wire trellis, and covered with scores 
of beautiful double white flowers—no mean object in the front of a 
greenhouse; and the attainment of this is a very easy matter. 
About the middle of March 1 procured a small plant of Petunia 
imperialis from Messrs. Stuart & Mein, Kelso. Itw'asputin a 4-inch 
pot, and placed in a Cucumber frame ; when it began to grow, I pinched 
off its top; it soon pushed again, and when the side shoots were about 
three or four inches long, it was moved into the greenhouse, and soon 
after shifted into an 8-inch pot, and a few stakes put in to support the 
branches it had made, two of which were stopped, and the others allowed 
to go on. On the 1st of June I had it shifted into an ll-inch pot, and 
tied up to a trellis, and the flowers picked off. After this it grew 
rapidly, and the shoots were stopped several times and trained, so as to 
cover the trellis with branches that would flower. All this time it stood 
* We were asking for information on this point, as to any observable 
degeneracy in the D^lia, Carnation, Picotee, Pink, Tulip, and Pansy. 
