1882.] 



AM) HORTICULTURIST. 



253 



which hiis been selected for this purpose is the 

 invohicre (the bracts surrounding tlie flowers), 

 which in D. supcrHua is refiexed, and in D, frus 

 tranea is S|)reading. In oliier respects they are 

 similar, having strong succulent stems, divided 

 leaves, and flower heads in which the outer 

 florets are flat, broad, spreading, and richly 

 colored, the central florets being tubular and 

 yellow. Dahlias were first mentioned by Htr- 

 na idez in his account of Mexico about the mid- 

 dle of the seventeenth century, and two figures 

 are given under the Mexican names, with 

 descriptions of their supposed medicinal proper- 

 ties. Some years subsequently a traveler in 

 Mexico, named Menonville, who was, it is said, 

 " employed by the French minister to steal 

 the cochineal insect from the Spaniards," also 

 noticed them, commenting on their great 

 beauty. 



In 1781 plants of D. superflua were introduced 

 to England by the Marchioness of Bute, and 

 some were grown in Madrid at the same 

 time, and among the latter the first one which 

 flowered in the autumn of 1789 enabled Cav 

 anilles, a Spanish botanist, to define the genus 

 under the name of Dahlia pinnata, the genus 

 being named in honor of Dihl, a pupil of 

 LiiHiaeus, and the specific title referring to the 

 form of the leaves, and this appears to be the D 

 superflua of succeeding authors. Two other 

 forms also flowered in following years, and were 

 respectively named D. rosea and D. coccinea, 

 and all were figured in a botanical work pul)li»h- 

 ed at the end of that century. The first plants 

 introduced 



have been lost, and in 1804 seeds were sent by 

 Lady Holland from Madrid to England, and 

 plants were raised fnmi these, which flowered in 

 that and the following years. In Andrews' "Bot- 

 anist's Repository," 1804, one of these, D. pinnati, 

 was figured from a plant' that flowered iuSeptem- 



of the " Botanical Magazine." In this work an 

 engraving of a single form of D. superflua ap- 

 peared in 1817, together with a representation of 

 one of the so-called double varieties, the first 

 presumably that was figured. It has flat pur- 

 plish florets, not cupped like we have them now, 

 but full and of good form. In connection with 

 these it is mentioned that it was the opinion of 

 DeCandolle that " No blue variety of Dahlia su- 

 perflua would ever be found, because blue and 

 yellow being the two primitive colors of flower?, 

 and always exclusive of each other, no blue 

 flower ever changes to yellow, or yellow to blue." 

 Both these drawings were made from specimens 

 in the Comte de Vande's garden, who had im- 

 ported them from France, where it appears Dah- 

 lias had then been receiving nuich attention for 

 some years. — London Journal of Horticulture. 



Origin of the Name Horse Chestnut — The 

 following curious derivation of the name Horse 

 Chestnut (^sculus Hippocastanuin) as well as 

 the fact giving rise to it, may possibly be as new 

 to the readers of The Garden as it wns to me, par- 

 ticularly as neither Loudon, in his "Encyclo- 

 paedia," nor any French book on the subject, 

 that I have seen, makes any mention of it. On 

 examining, either with or without a glass, the 

 mark left by the leaf stalk after its fall a very 

 distinct impression of a horseshoe imbediled in 

 the bark may be observed, bearing in relief seven 

 dots, simulating the heads of as many nails. 

 This mark assumes much more accurately the 

 shape of the horseshoe on the twigs of last year's 



by the Marchioness of Bute appear to growth than on older wood. This derivation 



seems much less " far fetched" than the two fol- 

 lowing given by Lf>udon : " It is said by some to 

 be applied ironically ; the nuts though having 

 the appearance of Sweet Chestnuts, being only 

 fit for horses ; and by some others, because the 

 nuts are used in Turkey for curing horses of 



ber ai»d October in the open ground at Holland ' pulmonary diseases." If fit for any animals, 

 House, Kensington." This has large florets of a j Horse Chestnuts are more likely to be called 

 purplish crimson color, the centre being bright only fit for pigs. First, because the irony would 

 yellow. In the same year a figure of D. coo- be so much the greater; and, secondly, because 

 cinea appeared in the "Botanical Magazine," i horses do not eat them willingly. As to their 

 which has small bright orange scarlet flowers, | use in the medicinal line, it is possible that 

 and was said to have been introduced from ! Turks, being no great doctors, may administer 

 France in the previous year by Mr. Eraser of j them to consumptive horses, but they can hardly 

 Sloane Square. The second edition of the be of much use in lung complaints, as their only 

 " Hortus K«wensis" in 1813 gives three varieties medicinal property recognized in civilized phar- 

 of D. suuerflua— namely, purpurea, liiacina, and macopeia is that of a tonic, and. as such, the 

 nana, and only mentions another species, D. tincture of Horse Chestnuts is sometimes given 

 frustranea, as synonymous with the D. coccinea for gastralgia. The oil of Horse C.iestnuta was, 



