Addisonia 63 



(Plate 224) 



DAHLIA "DOUGLAS TUCKER" 

 " Douglas Tucker " Dahlia 



Garden Hybrid 



Family Carduackae Thistle Family 



The variety "Douglas Tucker" is a charming representative 

 of what are now currently recognized in trade catalogues and in 

 flower shows as the "pompon" dahlias, a group that appears in 

 the classification adopted by the American Dahha Society as a 

 section of the "ball-shaped" class, rather than as constituting a 

 class by itself. The line of separation of the "pompons" from the 

 "show" dahhas is wholly arbitrary and is a matter of the size of 

 the flower-head. To qualify as a pompon, the flower-head, ac- 

 cording to the definition framed by the American Dahlia Society, 

 must be "under two inches in diameter." The smaller-flowered 

 varieties are usually preferred by those who grow pompons, as 

 they are more distinctive and less likely to be confused with their 

 close relatives, the "show" dahlias. Perhaps the smallest-flowered 

 variety cultivated in America and the one that most often captures 

 prizes for the smallest flowers is the "Belle of Springfield." The 

 pompons commonly make up in profusion of flowers what they 

 lack in size. Most of the modern varieties of this group are of low 

 growth and they are valuable for bedding purposes as well as for 

 cut flowers. In England, the name "pompon" is sometimes made 

 to include small-flowered varieties of the cactus type, as well as 

 those of the ball-shaped type. Although an earlier origin has 

 sometimes been claimed for the "pompons," the researches of 

 Mr. C. Harman Payne (Gard. Chron. Ill 62: 132. 1917) indicate 

 that the first variety of this group was raised by J. Sieckmann of 

 Kostritz, Germany, and distributed by him in 1851. These small- 

 flowered dahlias were flrst known as " LilHputians " and most of 

 "the earlier varieties bore German names. The name "Lilliputian" 

 was succeeded in England, at least, by "bouquet" and as early as 

 1863 the name "pompon" began to appear, suggested, it is evident, 

 by their similarity to the "pompon" chrysanthemums, which were 

 so called on account of their "resemblance to the little round ball 

 that used to be worn in front of a soldier's shako." In England, 

 many new varieties of pompon dahlias have been originated prin- 



