The Dahlia: Its History and Cultivation

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Groombidge and sons, 1853 - Dahlias - 40 pages
 

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Page 5 - India, and it is only within the last twenty years that it has been brought to Europe.
Page 7 - ... 3. — SIZE OF THE FLOWER. This is also a character to which florists attach considerable importance. There are many very excellent flowers raised, which are afterwards discarded from being wanting in this respect, although they may possess all the other desiderata in an eminent degree. The standard which is now adopted is, that no flower should be less than four, and not greater than six inches in diameter.
Page 3 - REVIEW. rope ; but Professor Wildenow, of Berlin, laboring under the impression that the name adopted by Cavanilles had been previously applied to another plant by Thunberg, he, in the fifth volume of his
Page 4 - Avith the success which attended this second essay, he from the best of these semi-double flowers procured a further supply of seed, the produce of which in the following year presented him with three plants which bore flowers perfectly double. These were therefore the first really double flowers which were ever produced.
Page 6 - Each petal from the lowest to the centre should be of the same shade of colour without shading or spotting. Those flowers which are striped should have the markings well defined, and should not run into the body colour. Each stripe should extend to the bottom of the petal, or at least out of sight. Edged flowers should have the colour on the edge of the petals as distinct as possible from the body colour.
Page 18 - ... connected only by a rubber cord which runs through them all and is fastened at the centre of each. Let an ivory ball of exactly the same size be driven against the end of the row. According to the law of the collision of elastic bodies, this ball will give up all its motion to the one it strikes, and this to the next, and so on to the end of the row. None of the balls move except the last, but they are all made to press against one another, and a wave of compression may be said to run along the...
Page 7 - In those which are called tipped flowers, the colour on the tip of the petal should be very distinct from that of the remaining portion, and clearly and cleanly separated from it. Fancy Dahlias are those which have the stripes, edges, tips, or spots of a colour lighter than the body colour.
Page 6 - If the form is deficient in any particular, colour and size, however perfect, cannot render compensation. A perfect flower should present in appearance, when looked down upon, that of a perfect circle; and when looked at sideways it should resemble about two-thirds of a globe, with the centre well filled up with petals.
Page iv - ... grew at Holloway, from twenty to thirty superb blooms might have been cut at the same time. It is of robust habit, and will bear ' well growing ' admirably ; the large blooms being quite free from coarseness, and the smaller fit for the choicest six. Perhaps one bloom produced at the Highgate Show was par excellence the bloom of the year, and I must confess to have felt a little proud to hear it pronounced the best bloom of the exhibition. I never saw a petal that was not fairly and distinctly...
Page 6 - ... placed alternately so that each will cover the opening which exists below it in the lower tier. 2. — COLOUR OF THE FLOWER. If the flower is a self...

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