CULTIVATION OF THE DAHLIA. 225 



-tion of it: the figure however, though destitute of flowers, 

 leuves no doubt, fhat it is the species called dahlia bidenti- 

 folia in Paradisus Londincnsis, and from the size of its fo- 

 liage most probably the orange coloured variety. 



Mr. Thiery Menonville, in the interesting detail of his T.Menoimlle. 

 journey to Guaxaca, published in 1?87> is the next author, 

 who to the best of my knowledge has noticed any species 

 of dahlia. It is well known, that this botanist was em- 

 ployed by the French Minister, to steal the cochineal insect 

 from the Spaniards. In this dangerous mission, he tells us, 

 that having entered one of the gardens in the suburbs of 

 that city, adjoining to a plantation of nopals, upon which 

 the insect feeds, he was struck with the beauty " d'une as- 

 " tere violctte et double, aussi grande que cefles de France, 

 ** mats produite par un arbuste tres sembl able pour lesfeuilles 

 " pinnees a notre surcau." From the violet colour of the 

 flower, I am inclined to think, that this is the species which 

 I have called dahlia sphondyliifolia. 



The third author, who has written upon these plants, is €avanilles. 

 the late Abbe Cavanilles. From a semidouble variety of 

 dahlia sambucifolia, which flowered at Madrid in October 

 1790, he in the first volume of his Icones, published in the 

 following January, first defined the characters of the genus 

 scientifically, naming it in honour of Andrew Dahl, a Name. 

 Swedish botanist, with the specific title of pinnata. After- 

 ward, in the third volume of the same work, he makes us 

 acquainted with two more species; his rosea, which from 

 diis ambiguous title has been confounded both here and at 

 Paris with his first ; and his coccinea, no less absurdly so 

 .denominated, its ligulated florets varying from yellow to 

 -orange, but never assuming a scarlet tint. My reasons for 

 adopting his generic, bvit none of his specific names, will 

 be" given hereafter, and are conformable to the usage of 

 Linne in those classical works Flora Lapponica and Hortus 

 C'liffortianus. 



These three dahlias having been sent to Paris from Ma- 

 dridhy Cavanilles in 1802, a very ample memoir with co- 

 loured figures was published two years afterward by Mon- Thouin. 

 sieur Thouin, in that celebrated national work, the Annates 

 jdu Museum d'Jiistoirc Natureile, and he makes the fourth 



Vol. XXII.— March, 1809- Q writer . 



