I send you herewith a drawing of a new seedling dahlia. It is one of a dozen or more plants that are flowering this summer for the first time, having been raised from seed last year. The bulbs the first summer were, on an average, about two and one-half to three inches long, and about three-quarters of an inch thick, and consisted mainly of one bulb with little bulb-lets attached to them, in some cases about the size of peanuts. This summer they have formed plants four and five feet high, and all bear different flowers, some of them as double as any dahlia in the market. In fact, the one of which I send a drawing is the only single one in the lot. I had always heard that seedlings from double flowers mostly came single, so I was much surprised to find most of these double.

Seedling Dahlia.

I found this experiment so interesting that I am prompted to send you this one as a specimen, thinking that others might make experiments likewise, and be as much surprised as I was. Of one thing they can be sure, that whatever flowers they get will surely be new. The seeds were sown by my friend, James M. Bryant, and he gave me the bulbs to try and see what would come out. In selecting this one out of the whole collection, all of which turned out very beautiful, I was prompted by its brilliant colors; for the scarlet markings on its petals of yellow make it look like a blaze of fire, shading gradually from a bright sulphur yellow in the center through orange to dark scarlet at the tips. - William Graf, Kirkwood, N. J.