30 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



large size, but the florets, instead of being cupped, rounded 

 at the tips, and arranged with mathematical precision, were 

 long, pointed, and with a graceful curve. In general char- 

 acter the blooms of D. Yuarezii had a rather close resem- 

 blance to a variety known as Brown's Glowworm, which 

 was figured in the Dahlia Register in 1836 when it was 

 enjoying a high degree of popularity. This point is of 

 interest as a proof that our gardens might have been en- 

 riched with cactus Dahlias some forty or fifty years earlier 

 than was the case had there been a demand for flowers of 

 this type. 



If D. Yuarezii did not at first appeal to the florists its 

 blooms were in full accord with the public taste, which had 

 for some years previously evinced an appreciation for 

 flowers that possessed a sufficient degree of lightness to 

 suggest a touch of nature rather than the hand of man. It 

 accordingly attained popularity with surprising rapidity, and 

 the raisers engaged with much zeal in the task of producing 

 new varieties of a similar type. 



It was on the occasion of a fruit show held at the 

 Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill, on September 3, 1880, 

 that D. Yuarezii was first presented to the public notice in 

 this country. The exhibitor was Mr. Henry Cannell, 

 V.M.H., of Swanley, and the large, elegant, and brilliantly 

 coloured flowers at once attracted the attention of visitors. 

 Shortly afterwards Mr. Cannell exhibited a stand of blooms 

 at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society held at 

 South Kensington, where also the new Dahlia created much 

 interest. As already stated in a previous chapter, M. J. T. 

 Van der Berg of Juxphaar near Utrecht received in 1872 

 from a friend in Mexico a case containing bulbs, tubers, and 



