Dahlias. 105 



the element of human skill is very large. A third tendency is 

 toward what are called pompons. These are dwarf plants with 

 spherical and double flowers like the last but much smaller and 

 much more abundant. The single varieties are the most natural ; 

 the large-flowering and pompon varieties are in a larger measure 

 the products of art. The dahlia was held pretty rigorously to 

 these old and familiar lines of development, and unfortunately 

 these somewhat conventional and artificial forms are still pop- 

 ularly supposed to be essential to the nature of the dahlia. The 

 first double forms came to England in the winter of 18 14, and in 

 1826 there were already sixty varieties cultivated by the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. In 1841 one English dealer had over 

 twelve hundred varieties. 



This is a wonderful variation for a plant that had been in culti- 

 vation practically only twenty-seven years. Many other species 

 have been in cultivation for more than a quarter of a century be- 

 fore showing any signs of "breaking the type" i. e. making a 

 pronounced variation from their wild form. It also gives some hint 

 of the extraordinary range of color, for the dahlia was permitted 

 to display its color charms in but three forms, the single, the 

 pompon or small sphere, and the big sphere of the large-flower- 

 ing varieties. 



In the forties and fifties variegated flowers were in great de- 

 mand. Dahlias were striped, banded, speckled, penciled, dotted, 

 blotched, and marked in all sorts of curious ways. There was as 

 much ingenuity in the invention of these unstable compounds as 

 is now displayed in designs for wall paper and oil cloths. These 

 things were catalogued under the " Fancy " class, for the English 

 divide the large-flowering varieties into "Show " and " Fancy." 

 The " Show " section contains the " selfs," that is those varieties 

 each of which has but a single color. The varieties of popular 

 flowers that have unity of color-effect are usually longest lived ; 

 those having mixed color-effects are usually more unstable and 

 are dropped out of cultivation when the popular enthusiasm goes 

 elsewhere. 



In the evolution of the dahlia too much attention has been paid 

 to color and not enough to form. Those twelve hundred varieties 

 of 1 84 1 were too much like twelve hundred variously painted balls 



