Addisonia 55 



(Plate 220) 



DAHLIA "MARGUERITE CLARK" 

 " Marguerite Clark " Dahlia 



Family Carduaceae ThistIvE Family 



"Marguerite Clark" is an attractive example of what are cur- 

 rently known as the "peony-flowered," "peony," or "art" dahlias. 

 The definition of the "peony-flowered" dahlias, as framed by the 

 American Dahlia Society, calls for "semi-double flowers with open 

 center, the inner floral rays being usually curled or twisted, the 

 other or outer being either flat or more or less irregular." The 

 members of the class intergrade on the one hand with the "duplex" 

 group, and on the other with the "decorative" and "hybrid cactus" 

 groups. In distinguishing them from the two last-named, the early 

 presence of an open center in the flower-head is in practice the most 

 important criterion of a peony-flowered dahlia, but the line of de- 

 marcation is often vague and two types of flower-heads may some- 

 times be exhibited by a single plant at the same time. 



Peony-flowered dahlias are the sort most frequently obtained in 

 an average lot of seedlings and unless the flowers are distinguished 

 by attractive coloring, unusual form, or profusion in number, they 

 are at the present time not highly esteemed in most quarters. 

 However, they have enjoyed their periods of popularity, and, to- 

 gether with the cactus and decorative varieties, they have played 

 an important part in the reaction against the alleged stiffness and 

 formalism of the ball-shaped dahlia of the middle of the last century. 

 The first good figure of a peony-flowered dahlia appears to be that 

 of Dahlia pinnata nana, published in Andrews' Botanist's Repository 

 {pi. 483) in 1807. The modern peony-flowered dahlias were given 

 their first popular impetus in Holland and they were first known 

 as the "Dahlias splendides" or the "Giant Dahlias of Holland." 

 They were originated by H. Hornsveld of Baarn, and are said to 

 have been derived by crossing single-flowered forms with varieties 

 of the "cactus" type. They were exhibited at Amsterdam in 1903 

 and at a meeting of the Society nationale d'Horticole at Paris in 

 September, 1904. These Dutch varieties reached America first in 

 1907. Numerous worthy additions have since been made by Ameri- 

 can dahlia-growers. 



The prejudice against open-centered flower-heads in dahlias, 

 which still obtains, was doubtless responsible for the comparatively 



