io PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



valors regarding it as a tropical plant requiring much heat, 

 whereas it has its home on the higher plateaux of Mexico, 

 and thrives in comparatively low temperatures. Humboldt 

 and Bonpland in their famous explorations in Mexico, which 

 commenced in 1799, found Dahlias growing wild in a prairie 

 between Areo and Patzcuaro at an altitude of 5000 feet 

 above the sea level. 



In 1804, the year in which the illustration of Dahlia 

 coccinea was published in the Botanical Magazine, a 

 second supply of seed was received in this country from 

 Madrid. This was sent by Lady Holland to M. Bounainte, 

 librarian to Lord Holland at Holland House, Kensington, 

 and he was successful in raising the three varieties 

 coccinea, crocea, and purpurea. They all bloomed satis- 

 factorily, and were figured in the botanical periodicals. 

 At that period the light and elegant single flowers which 

 are now so highly appreciated were not regarded as suffi- 

 cient by the flower-loving public, and no sooner had the 

 Dahlia made its way into gardens than strenuous en- 

 deavours were made by cultivators to obtain varieties with 

 double flowers. During the first ten years or so of the 

 nineteenth century the Dahlia made its way into several 

 of the chief countries of the Continent of Europe, and 

 was received with much favour. M. Otto, director of 

 the Berlin Botanic Gardens, cultivated it largely, raised 

 many new varieties from seed obtained as the result 

 of careful cross-fertilisation, and effected considerable im- 

 provements. Hartig, the garden inspector at Karlsruhe, 

 obtained a double variety that attracted much attention 

 from growers. From Berlin the Dahlia was in 1812 

 brought by Vogel to Erfurt, and by Haage to Leipzig. 



