History 3 



probably been drawn from specimens cultivated 

 in the gardens of the Aztecs. He states that 

 there are many more forms which also vary in 

 colour through all the shades from white to yellow, 

 purple and red. 



The great French botanist, Nicholas Thierry 

 de Menonville, was sent to Mexico in 1787 on 

 the dangerous mission of learning the secret 

 which the Aztecs had of cultivating the cochineal 

 insect. He reported then that he had seen the 

 Acocotli growing in a garden as a cultivated 

 flower. In 1789 the first seeds reached Europe. 



Vicente Cervantes, who was director of the 

 Mexican Botanic Gardens, sent to that splendid 

 priest and ardent botanist, the Abbe Cavanilles, 

 director of the Royal Gardens in Madrid, the 

 first ancestors of our gorgeous modern dahlias. 

 These seeds produced single flowers of brilliant 

 hue such as grow in myriads over the high 

 volcanic plateaux surrounding the great "Valley 

 of Mexico"; but by careful crossing and selection 

 were soon giving flowers of many forms and 

 colours. 



Andreas Dahl was a great Swedish botanist 

 living in Berlin. He had been a pupil of the 

 great Linnaeus, and in 1787 had published a 

 book on the Systema Vegetabilium, which com- 

 manded the attention and respect of all Europe. 



