1880 . ] 
DAHLIA COCCINEA SCARLET DWARF.-GLADIOLUS COLVILLII ALBUS. 
113 
DAHLIA COCCINEA 
[Plate 
E have already, at p. 52, invited 
attention to the usefulness of the 
choicer varieties of Dahlia coccinea 
for decorative gardening, their freely-branched 
and elegant style of growth, and their brilliant 
colours, mostly scarlet and yellow, rendering 
them not only effective in the flower-garden 
and shrubbery borders as attractive flowering 
plants, but causing the branches, with their long- 
stalked flower-heads, to be sought after in homes 
of taste, for the decoration of large flower- 
vases. The plant is a species quite distinct 
in character from the Dahlia which has given 
birth to the so-called double varieties of the 
florist, so distinct, indeed, that their respective 
paths lie wide as the Poles asunder, having, in 
fact, nothing in common but the one fact that 
both happen to belong to the family of com¬ 
posite plants which botanists have named 
Dahlia, after a Swedish member of their fra¬ 
ternity—a name which florists also have 
adopted for the flower they have bred up from 
D. superflua , another member of the genus. 
This explanation is necessary, since the florists 
are rather inclined to resent the revival of the 
culture of these single Dahlias, a feeling which 
is quite objectless, since there is no sort of 
rivalry between the two. The florists’ Dahlia 
is well able to hold its own amongst admirers 
of florists’ flowers. The Dahlia coccinea simply 
comes before us, as any other half-hardy 
SCARLET DWARF. 
519.] 
brilliant flower might do, claiming a place 
in the first rank amongst our ornamental 
summer garden plants. 
We have said that the flower-heads of the 
varieties of D. coccinea are what is called 
single, that is to say, the disk is surrounded by 
a single row of radiate florets—like the Cin¬ 
eraria, for example. No doubt, as it shows a 
tendency to vary, it may in time produce so- 
called double-flowers; but so far as present 
indications go, this would scarcely be an im¬ 
provement, and in the meantime we must look 
upon D. coccinea as a single-flowered com¬ 
posite, both elegant in habit, and effective from 
the brilliant colour of its flowers. 
The form we now figure is one called Scar¬ 
let Dwarf, which was raised in the Chelsea 
Botanic Garden, and is being sent out this 
season by Mr. Cannell, of Swanley. It is 
dwarfer in habit than the type, more branch¬ 
ing and floriferous, the parent plant being 
faithfully represented by the woodcut at p. 53 
prepared from a sketch made by Mr. Worthing¬ 
ton G. Smith. We have nothing to add to the 
information there given, and need only men¬ 
tion that there is a yellow-flowered variety of 
similar habit called Yellow Dwarf, which, to¬ 
gether with Scarlet Gem and Yellow Gem, 
were raised from the same batch of seedlings, 
and are all worth growing as decorative 
border plants.—T. Moore. 
GLADIOLUS COLVILLII ALBUS. 
VERY gardener who is called upon to 
furnish large supplies of cut flowers for 
bouquets or the drawing-room should 
grow this chaste beauty in quantity. At the 
present time, we have this and G. byzantinus , a 
rich purple, in full flower, and find them in¬ 
valuable for dressing small or medium-sized 
vases ; moreover, they travel well, and the un¬ 
expanded blooms open after the stems are 
placed in water. They are extremely cheap ; 
their culture is simple, and, like all the bulbous 
tribe, they increase in quantity under good 
management. On the warm sand at Chelten¬ 
ham last year, I saw a dense row that had 
stood for three years without protection ; but on 
our cold, calcareous loam, where we suffer more 
No. 32. imperial series. 
from wet than frost, 1 lift and dry the bulbs, and 
stow them away safe from frost. In January 
I place eight or ten bulbs in a G-in. pot, 
filled with light rich soil, and bury these in 
leaf-mould in a cold pit, where they remain 
undisturbed until March. They are then un¬ 
covered, watered for the first time, hardened 
off, and planted out in April. Although the 
autumn-flowering varieties are well known, and 
such kinds as G. Colvillii , ccirdinalis ,and insignis , 
known as Cornflags, were found in large masses 
in every herbaceous garden years ago, the 
modern bedding raid has driven them out of 
cultivation, and many of the rising generation 
of gardeners are not even aware of their exist- 
o 
ence ; but the return to hardy plants will soon 
