safford: notes on dahlia 



365 



of which, an aromatic Ligusticum with a hollow stem and fleshy 

 roots resembHng those of the genus Dahlia, was erroneously 

 figured under the same heading as the two dahUas first described. 



Fig. I. — Duplex-flowered Dahlia, called Acocotli by the 

 Aztecs. After Hernandez (1575). 



Hernandez was not a botanist, but grouped his plants accord- 

 ing to their uses and appearance, rather than to their botanical 

 affinities.^ Two of his figures, representing dahhas of the type 



1 In connection with the hollow-stemmed umbellifer of Mexico, it may be of 

 interest to note that from the hollow stems of the allied Cicuta the shepherds of 

 Virgil and Theocritus made pan-pipes, or syrinxes, "disparibus septem compact a 

 ciciitis fistula." 



