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GLADIOLI. It would be difficult to describe the beauty to which these have been brought. They are fine plants for back lines, and can be used with striking effect planted thinly in large beds filled with dwarfer and more compact blooming plants. Some of the sorts -such as Brenchleyensis and La Poussin, for instance. -throw out lateral flower-spikes after the leader has gone out of flower, and such varieties flower for a long time.

They are very easily managed plants. If wanted to bloom early, they should be potted singly and started in a little more than greenhouse temperature, and planted out early in May when about 6 inches high. But to flower in the latter part of August and onwards, they need not be potted where there is a suitable soil; all that is necessary is to plant them where they are to bloom at once about the middle of April. Each bulb, when planted, should be covered with a little light sandy soil; and when the soil is levelled over them, they should not be more than 2 inches deep. They thrive best in a deep, rich, sandy loam; and in such soils, in favourable localities, they make splendid bulbs in this country. They should be left in the ground as long as there is no danger of frost getting at the bulbs; and while the foliage keeps green, it is best to protect them by covering the surface of the bed with any light porous material till they have well matured their bulbs. I rarely lift them before the middle or end of November; indeed, they keep better in dry soils in the borders than by being lifted, but care must be taken that frost does not reach the bulbs. Generally, it is necessary to lift them, to allow of a different arrangement every year. The best place to keep them in during the winter is in

any dry place where they will be cool and free from frost. The beds intended for Gladioli should always be trenched, well drained, and rich. They are most suitable for amateurs, as they can be kept through the winter with little trouble, and are cheap to purchase now. If wanted to bloom early and in cold localities, they will spring nicely in a room window in pots, and kept moderately moist. In good soils they double themselves every year. They can also be increased by preserving the young bulbs about the size of peas, which form about the sides and bottoms of the parent bulbs. These should be preserved by being mixed with light damp soil or sand all winter, and sown in spring in rows a foot apart, and two inches between each bulb. In two years they make fine blooming bulbs.

Select List of Gladioli.

Adèle Souchet, white, shaded with white; large, fine shape.
Bertha Rabourdin, pure white, shaded with carmine; very fine.
Brenchleyensis, deep crimson; extra fine for lines and masses.
Charles Dickens, rose tinted, and striped with chamois and carmine.
Comte de Morny, cherry, with white blotches; very effective.
Cuvier, amaranth, shaded with purple; very large.

Decandolle, cherry, blazed with red.

Dr. Lindley, rose; lower petals blazed with carmine.

Edulia, white, stained with violet.

Emperor Napoleon, vermilion, with white spots; extra fine.

Eurydice, pure white, blazed with rose; very fine.
Fulton, vermilion red, with purple stains; large.
Imperatrice Eugenie, white, suffused with rose.
James Carter, orange red, spotted with white.

James Veitch, crimson, stained with violet; large and fine.
John Waterer, cherry, with white stains.

Lord Byron, brilliant scarlet, stained and streaked with white; most effective.

Le Poussin, top petals light red, under ones pure white; most delicate and beautiful.

Madame de Sevigné, cherry, stained with white.

Madame Eugene Verdier, scarlet, spotted with purple.

Madame Vilmorin, rose, with white centre, with darker rose edges; extra fine.

Maréchal Vaillant, scarlet, stained with white.

Meyerbeer, bright red, streaked with vermilion; fine shape and substance.

Milton, white, tinted with rose and blazed with red; very fine. Napoleon, scarlet, under petals blotched with white; one of the best. Newton, crimson, streaked with white; very pleasing variety.

Oracle, cherry rose.

Penelope, fleshy white, lower petals yellowish, with stripes of

carmine.

Prince of Wales, bright red, with white blotch; extra fine.

Princess of Wales, white, blazed with carmine.

Shakespeare, white, blazed with rose; large and showy.
Solfaterre, sulphur yellow.

Stephenson, cherry, striped white.

Velleda, orange rose; large and showy.

Vulcan, vivid crimson.

Walter Scott, flesh colour, spotted with yellow.

DAHLIAS. These old favourites are perhaps not now so much employed as their merits deserve. Very gorgeous masses can be made of the taller-growing sorts. when pegged down to make them suitably dwarf. But now that the race of compact dwarf-growing varieties has been increased and improved, they form a very effective group. The dwarf sorts, too, come much earlier into bloom than tall varieties; and though they are lacking in form, they yield a great and even mass of bloom. Their tubers are, with a few exceptions, not so subject to decay as some of the high-bred show flowers; and this is no small recommendation, now that so many tender plants have to be wintered with care.

As soon as leaves and flowers are destroyed by frost the roots should be lifted, or if inconvenient to do so

immediately after frost, a little earth should be drawn up round their stems, to prevent a second night's frost from injuring them near the surface of the soil; for if injured there, the stem is more likely to decay downwards and cause destruction to the collection of buds at the base of the stem, upon which their life depends. Lift the roots carefully, cutting the stems away about 6 or 8 inches from the vital part of the tubers; then allow them to remain three or four days in a cool dry shed, to dry them and the little mould that adheres to them; after which, lay them close together on a dry floor; and when placed, put fine very dry soil all round and over them, filling up all the crevices about the tubers and up the stems till the vital parts of the root are covered about 3 inches. The storing place should be cool and dry. They should be examined about the end of January; and should they be looking well and fresh, covered over again for a month; but if decay be doing its work, all the suspicious-looking tubers at least should be put into heat to excite them into growth. But when all goes on well, the 1st of March is early enough to place them in heat, except in the case of those which are to be as much increased as possible, and these should be started early in February.

Any place where they can be put in boxes, or on the shelf or floor of a house, and covered over with some leaf-mould, with a temperature of 60°, will start them nicely. Most of the dwarf sorts are very easily struck from cuttings, and should be put in, when 3 or 4 inches long, in a place suitable for striking Verbenas and other bedding plants. Prince Arthur, which is probably our finest dwarf Dahlia, is very shy to strike, and succeeds best when allowed to remain growing on the tuber till

it throws out a root or two among the leaf-mould, which it does pretty freely. Those growths that root, if carefully removed with their roots and potted, always do well. Those which do not throw out roots are potted with a portion of the tuber attached. This variety keeps badly, and a stock of pot roots should always be held in reserve. When rooted, the free sorts, such as Zelinda, do well pricked off into boxes and 8-inch pots, instead of potting them off. Into an 8-inch pot about ten plants are put. Tender sorts require potting-off singly. For cold late soils it is best to pot all; but in light early soils they suffer very little when shaken out and planted and watered at once, and much less room is required for them. They should be grown in a rather rich soil, well hardened off before being planted, and not planted till at least the last days of May, even in favoured localities.

When it is desired to keep a stock of pot tubers, and the weakest cannot be spared for that purpose when the others are planted, the best way is to put in cuttings from the short side shoots about the middle of July. They root freely in bottom heat, and a number can be kept in a small space by using narrow deep pots. This is not necessary, except in the case of those which are troublesome to keep in the ordinary way. Prince Arthur is the worst I have grown, and even it keeps pretty well when lifted and wintered as has been described.

Amateurs who cannot command the aid of a glass house or frame, with artificial heat, will find Dahlias not easily managed. I have known Dahlia roots kept well and flowered for years in succession, in dry soils especially, by simply cutting them down to the surface of the ground, and covering above and all round the roots with litter, ashes, or any other material that will

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