THE DAHLIA. 



BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Class. Order. 



SYNGENES1A SUPERFLUA. ASTERIOID.E. 



Natural Order. 



COMPOSITE. 



GENERIC CHARACTER Head radiated, flowers of the ray ligulate, female or neuter, those 

 of the disk tubular, five-toothed. Involacre double. Receptacle flat, chaffy, scales 

 membraneous, oblong, undivided. Branches of the style erect or somewhat incurved, 

 thick, externally hairy. Anthers exudate appendiculate. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER Leaves opposite, divided in a pinnate, more rarely in a bi-pinnate 

 manner. Segments ovate. Roots fasciculate, some cylindrical, others oblong, tuber- 

 culate. Branches elongated at the apex naked, one-headed. Heads various in color. 



The Dahlia, although a plant of this continent, being originally from Mexico, was 

 known in Europe before it was cultivated in the United States. It is generally said to 

 have been introduced into England by Lady Holland, in 1804 ; but the fact is, it had 

 been introduced there many years before that period, and was only brought from Madrid, 

 in 1804, by Lady Holland, who apparently did not know that it was already in the 

 country. The first kind of Dahlia known to Europeans was discovered in Mexico by 

 Baron Humboldt, in 1789, and sent by him to Professor Cavanilles, of the Botanical 

 Garden, at Madrid, who gave the genus the name of Dahlia, in honor of the Swedish 

 Professor Dahl. Cavanilles sent a plant of it the same year to the Marchioness of Bute, 

 who was very fond of flowers, and kept it in the green-house. From this species nearly 

 all the varieties known in the gardens have been raised ; as it seeds freely, and varies 

 very much when raised from seed. It is rather remarkable that the Dahlia Superflua, 

 or Variabilis, should produce flowers of colors so different, as crimson, purple, white, 

 yellow, orange and scarlet. Among all the colors, however, displayed by these varie- 

 ties, no flowers have yet appeared of blue, and comparatively few of a pure white. 



The Dahlia is a tuberous-rooted plant, which is propagated either by seeds or division 

 of the root. The seeds are chiefly used for raising new sorts ; and they should be 

 treated like tender animals, being sown on a slight hot-bed in March or April, and 

 planted out in May, or the beginning of June, according to the season. The plants 

 rarely flower the first year, but the tubes will form in the course of the summer, and 

 may be taken up in autumn with those of the old plants. When the plants are propa- 

 gated by division of the root, care must be taken that each piece has a bud to it. These 



