APRIL. 
97 
THE DAHLIA. 
(Plates 137 and 138 .) 
In our January number we directed the attention of our readers 
to the various Dahlias which had made their appearance during 
the preceding season for the first time. On that occasion we 
could only speak favourably of what had been produced, but of 
two varieties among those we enumerated we have now the 
pleasure of presenting excellent delineations, furnished by Mr. 
Andrews, with his usual accuracy and ability. Alice Downie, 
the white variety, is a pure white without bleaching, and, as 
our readers will see, is a decided improvement on all of this 
class which has preceded it. Mr. Keynes, of Salisbury, is the 
fortunate raiser of this most desirable acquisition. 
Village Gem is another valuable addition to our collections, 
which may well be allowed to speak for itself. There has been 
nothing of the colour since Brewer’s King—a variety grown 
some twenty years since—went out of cultivation. We are 
indebted for this truly beautiful and chaste variety to Mr. 
Green, of High Cross. 
The growers of Dahlias in general, and especially those who 
grow for exhibition, cannot but be gratified at our bringing 
two such excellent varieties to their notice. Our advertising 
pages will inform them when and where the plants are obtain¬ 
able, and those who seek information as to their culture will 
, find in our Calendar copious instructions which they may 
follow with advantage. 
ARE WE RIGHT IN MAKING FRUIT-TREE BORDERS 
POROUS ? 
Are we quite right in making fruit-tree borders so open or porous as is 
generally recommended? I may ask the question of nearly every 
writer on gardening for the last twenty years, as it may be termed the 
modern system in comparison; for the older authors have not been so 
strict on this point. But with modern writers—yourself, Mr. Editor, 
or Conductor, amongst the rest—the instances in which this is not 
insisted upon as a sine qua non in border-making are very rare, and 
most of the evils which have happened to fruit-trees have been 
attributed to the non-porosity of the borders. 
We read of open borders, and of porous borders, and of the elasticity 
of borders, as if trees could grow only in borders whose composition 
bore some resemblance to a horse-hair mattress; until we picture to 
ourselves a mass of spongy materials composed of fibrous turf—elastic, 
if you will—manure, and other ingredients, to make it as open as 
VOL. XI., NO. CXXIV. H 
