A friend was expressing his surprise, a few days ago, that a choice collection of dahlias which he imported from Europe in the spring of 1866 and that had bloomed splendidly that year, have many of them this year failed to grow, and the rest prove to be nearly all alike and a common red variety. He said the white and yellow ones had degenerated, and all were uniformly the above-mentioned red.

I gave that gentleman the following explanation, which I submit to the readers of the Horticulurist. In order to propagate the new varieties of dahlias, and make hundreds of plants where only a few would be propagated by the usual methods of separating the tubers, or making cuttings from forwarded growths in early spring, the European raisers of dahlias graft them on roots in winter, and to that effect use roots of the strongest growing varieties. To make those grafts, only one bud is sufficient, so that when the owner of a good variety desires it to remain scarce, for pecuniary reasons or other, he uses cions with only one bud at the top; those plants grow and bloom as in the ordinary way, but in the fall everything is gone of the new variety, and even the tubers, except those (tubers) the upper part of which has been used for stocks, and which may have yet some dormant buds; the same when planted afterward by the uninitiated produce the flower of the stock and not that of the variety grafted on it.

When instead of a cion with a single bud, one with a second bud at the base is used, inserted into the stock, the lower bud grows into roots which naturally reproduce flowers identical to the variety of the cion.