334 LUTHER BURBANK 



sent the plant to Europe, and its reception there 

 suggests that barbarian and insect have no 

 monopoly of the color sense to which red appeals. 

 For the Mexican composite flower was taken into 

 the European gardens, and made to feel quite 

 at home in its new habitat. 



The new exotic came, as a matter of course, 

 under the eye of the great classifier Linnaeus. 

 And he thought so highly of it that he was moved 

 to name it in honor of his friend and pupil, Dr. 

 Andreas Dahl. The great Swedish classifier 

 spoke with final authority in that day, and 

 "Dahlia" the plant became in all languages and 

 wherever grown except, of course, in its native 

 habitat; and what it might be called there, if 

 anything, did not greatly concern the civilized 

 world. 



The scientific generic name Dahlia seemed to 

 serve as well as another for the popular name 

 also. So the name of the friend of Linnseus has 

 been perpetuated as a household word, familiar 

 almost as the words rose or violet; but of course 

 the great majority of people who pronounce it 

 give no thought to its origin, and are quite 

 unaware that they are paying tribute to a man, 

 and commemorating a friendship. 



So entirely has the origin of the word been 

 overlooked, indeed, that the name dahlia, which 



