Addisonia 59 



(Plate 222) 



DAHLIA "KING OF THE AUTUMN " 

 " King of the Autumn " Dahlia 



Garden Hybrid 

 Family Carduacear Thisti,© Family 



"King of the Autumn," a variety of Dutch origin, is a good 

 example of the "decorative" class of dahlias, the class that is 

 perhaps the most popular with American dahlia-growers at the 

 present day. The American Dahlia Society defines varieties of this 

 class as having "double flowers, full to the center in early season, 

 flat rather than ball-shaped, with broad, flat, somewhat loosely 

 arranged floral rays with broad points or rounded tips, which are 

 straight or decurved (turned down or back), not incurved, and 

 with margins revolute, if rolled at all." "Margins revolute," if 

 pronounced, would lead to placing a variety in the hybrid cactus 

 group, with which the decoratives intergrade, and any pronounced 

 showing of an "open center," which is an occasional failing of the 

 variety here figured, weakens the line of distinction between the 

 decorative and peony groups. Again, the rounding and deepening 

 of the flower-head and the cupping of the inner floral rays makes a 

 transition to the "hybrid show" type. The decorative type of 

 dahlia has been developed chiefly in Holland, England, and, more 

 recently, in the United States. Most of the numerous varieties of 

 this group now in cultivation in the United States are of domestic 

 origin. The largest-flowered varieties grown at the present time 

 belong in this group, the flower-heads occasionally attaining a 

 diameter of thirteen inches. Many of the varieties have flower- 

 heads that are too large to be represented in natural size on an 

 Addisonia plate, and the desire to show the flowers without reduc- 

 tion in size has led to the selection of one of the smaller-flowered 

 varieties to represent the decorative class. 



The development of a "fully double" dahlia flower-head from 

 the "single" and "semi-double" forms in which the dahlia was 

 first known in Europe appears to have required a number of years 

 of cultivation and selection. The credit of originating the first 

 "fully double" dahlia has sometimes been given to a Belgian horti- 

 culturist, M. Donckelaar, who is said to have attained this goal in 

 1814 or 1815. But there appears to be evidence that this result 

 was accomplished as early as 1805 in Kensington Gardens, in 

 I^ondon, and even earlier on the continent (Gard. Chron. III. 35: 



