gg^, CULTIVATION OF THL. DA1ILTA* 



IX, 



Observations on the different Species of Dahlia, u~.ul the best 

 Melhod : of cultivating than in Great .Britain. Bu It. A. 

 Salisbury, Esq. J\ K. £*. 



ias * j^ q fl oweja ^ which have been lately introduce*] into the 



gardens of tins island > are more showy than the dahlias; 

 and they possess the additional merit of being'produced at 

 a season, when most others are decaying; nevertheless, it: 

 will appear in the subsequent pages, that by a little manage- 

 ment these plants may be made to blossom at a much ear- 

 lier period: and that in vallies, or low situations, where our 

 autumnal frosts frequently cut them off early in October, it 

 is the only method of obtaining their flowers at all. X am 

 more emboldened to offer these results of my own experience 

 to the Horticultural Society, as they have turned out very 

 different to what was expected from the hints thrown out 

 upon this very subject by one of the first gardeners in the 

 world. 

 History of The earliest account I am able to trace of these plants, 



thern, which are all natives of Mexico, is in Hernandez' History of 



that country, published in lb'51, where two species are figur- 

 First mention- ed. He says that the first grows in the mountains of 

 ^ by Hernan " Quauhnahuac, and is called acocotli by the inhabitants; 

 that it has leaves composed of five leaflets, some of which 

 are sinuated, slender peduncles, with pale-red stellated 

 flowers; that the roots are tuberous, strong and bitter in 

 taste, and, according to the fashionable jargon of his time, hot 

 and dry in the third degree ; that an ounce in weight, taken 

 internally, is a powerful medicine, alleviating pains in the 

 bowels, expelling flatulence, increasing the urinary dis- 

 charge, promoting sweat, strengthening cold languid sto- 

 machs, excellent against the colic, resolving obstruction?, 

 and dissipating tumours if externally applied, This is 

 clearly the pale red variety of dahlia sainbucifolia. The 

 second he calls acocotli ligustici facie, but gives no descrip- 



Trans, of the Horticultural Society, vol. I^p. 84. 



tjo* 



