THE DAHLIA. 



Those who are curious about the early history of our fashion- 

 able garden plants will find an excellent account of the in- 

 troduction of this truly noble flower, than which we have 

 nothing of its season half so valuable, in the third volume of 

 the Transactions of the Horticultural Society. It is there 

 stated by the late Mr. Sabine, that the merit of first carefully 

 attending to and cultivating these plants (Dahlias) belongs 

 exclusively to the continental gardeners ; for although we re- 

 ceived them almost as soon as the French and Germans, yet, 

 if not lost, they had nearly gone out of notice with us, whilst 

 in France and Germany they had increased as much in num- 

 ber as in beauty; and persons fond of gardening who visited 

 the Continent on the return of peace in 1814, were surprised 

 with the splendour and varieties of the Dahlias in the foreign 

 collections. In the winter of that year several roots were 

 imported into this country ; and since that period we have 

 made up for former neglect, as is sufficiently evinced by the 

 splendid exhibitions of these flowers both in the public and 

 private gardens near London. Such was the state of our 

 collections in 1818, when the above account was written. 



Cavanilles was the first scientifically to define the genus, 

 naming it in honour of Dahl, a Swedish botanist. Some 

 objections were at first made to this name, which has, how- 

 ever, eventually become established. 



The Dahlias are natives of Mexico, where they were found 

 by Baron Humboldt in sandy meadows in the province of 

 Mechoacan, between Areo and Patzcuaro, at 4800 or 5600 

 feet above the level of the sea. From their native habitats 

 they had been transferred to the Botanic Garden at Mexico, 

 and thence to the Royal Garden at Madrid, in which the then 

 existing species, Pinnata, Rosea, and Coccinea, flowered be- 

 tween the years 1789 and 1794. In 1802, plants of each of 

 these were transferred from Madrid to the Jardin des Plantes 

 at Paris. In May 1804 seeds of the three kinds were sent 

 from Madrid by Lady Holland to Mr. Buonaiuti, then the 

 librarian at Holland House. From these seeds Pinnata was 

 raised, and flowered in the following September, and was 

 figured in the Botanists' Repository. It proved to be a deep 

 purple stellated single-flowered sort. In the succeeding year 

 plants of Rosea and Coccinea also flowered at Holland House, 

 from which nearly all the plants then in our gardens were 

 obtained. The original introduction of the Dahlia is, how- 

 ever, ascribed to the Marchioness of Bute, who brought the 



VOL. II. NO. XIV. D 



