50 DAHLIA SUPERFLUA. 



and yet during this short interval the innumerable varieties which 

 have been produced, and the degree of perfection to which it has 

 attained, eminently excels all other instances of improvement in any 

 different flower. 



The first notice we have of the Dahlia is given by M. Hernandez 

 in his history of Mexico, published in the year 1651, who figures 

 and describes two species under the name of Acocotli, as he informs 

 us it was called by the inhabitants, which he found growing spon- 

 taneously upon and around the mountains of Quauhnahuac. It is 

 afterwards noticed, in 1787, by M.Thiery Menonville, in the history 

 of his journey to Guaxaca, where he was despatched by the French 

 Government upon the perilous mission of stealing the Cochineal 

 Insect from the Spaniards. He tells us that having entered one of 

 the gardens in the vicinity of Guaxaca, and adjoining to a plantation 

 of Nopals, upon which the insect feeds, he was much struck with its 

 beauty. In the autumn of 1790 a plant, which had been intro- 

 duced into the royal garden at Madrid the previous year, produced 

 blooms, and was described by Cavanilles, in his " Icones Plantarum," 

 published in the early part of 1791. Upon this introduction of the 

 plant to Madrid, the Marchioness of Bute, then temporarily residing 

 there, procured seeds or roots and immediately transmitted them to 

 this country ; unfortunately, however, shortly after their arrival, they 

 were totally lost. About the year 1802 the celebrated traveller and 

 eminent botanist, Baron Humboldt, discovered it growing upon high 

 sandy plains, five thousand feet above the level of the sea, as 

 described in the "Voyage de Humboldt et Bonplaud," published 

 in 1810. In 1802 Cavanilles forwarded roots to Paris, where, 

 we are informed, they were planted in large pots and placed in 

 a frame, but that they did not bloom until the end of the autumn of 

 1S03. In 1804 they were figured and described at length byM. 

 Tbouin, in the " Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle." In 

 1810 Professor Willdenow describes the Dahlia in his "Species 

 Plantarum," and changes its name to Georgina, supposing that the 

 name Dahlia had been applied to a totally different genus previously 

 to its adoption by Cavanilles to the present genus ; in which, however, 

 lie was doubtless mistaken, as the genus he alludes to is called Dalea, 

 and was first described by Professor Thunberg, in the " Skrivter af 

 Naturhistoric Selfskabet," published in 1792, whilst Cavanilles' 





