mon stalk four to eight inches long, furrowed on the upper side, and 
slightly dilated at the base so as to clasp the stem. LEaFLeETs five or 
seven, rarely more, oval, blunt, irregularly and coarsely toothed, the 
lateral ones opposite to each other, usually very unequally contracted 
at the base and the pairs remote from each other, the terminal one 
rather larger, equal at the base and gradually contracted, and gener- 
ally very near to the last pair. PepuNctzs six or eight inches, or 
even more in length, smooth, naked or bearing a single linear leaflet. 
FLOWER HEADS nodding as in the rest of the genus, about two inches 
and a half in diameter. INvoLucRE smooth, the external leaflets oval 
- lanceolate, blunt, stiff, slightly spreading, five in number ; inner leaflets 
always eight in the flowers hitherto seen, twice as long as the external 
ones, oval-oblong, membranous and blunt, thickened and connected 
together at the base. FLorets of the ray, as many as the inner 
leaflets of the involucre, white, oval oblong, with two to five minute 
teeth, female and fertile. Pate of the receptacle oval, oblong, mem- 
branous, half the length of the involucre. FLorets of the disk, yel- 
low. STYLE projecting beyond the floret, the branches straight, 
diverging, thick, broad, and conspicuously hairy. 
Porutar AND GeoGrapHicaL Notice. As the Dahlia excelsa, 
figured in the second volume of the Botanist, No. 88, is the giant of 
the genus, so may the present species be considered as the dwarf, but 
far from being despicable on that account, it is likely that it may 
prove to be a much more useful acquisition than its gigantic unwieldy 
congener. Reduction in the stature has, indeed, been one of the great 
desiderata amongst Dahlia growers, where the object is to embellish a 
flower garden, rather than to decorate a drawing room, or to display 
in an exhibition tent; and as the Dahlia scapigera seems already to 
show a disposition to sport, it is probable that from its great affinity to 
the common Dahlia variabilis it may be made to cross with that spe- 
cies, and produce a number of valuable dwarf hybrid races. 
The Dahlia scapigera, like the rest of the genus, isu native of Mexico, 
although the precise locality does not appear to have been recorded. 
G. B. 
InrropucTion; WHERE Grown; CuLTurE. This new species 
was received into the Birmingham Horticultural Society’s Garden, 
from the Berlin Royal Garden, in 1838. It is a very distinct species, 
not exceeding two feet in height, and comes into flower earlier than the 
common species—a quality which is desirable. It requires exactly the 
same treatment as our well-known Dahlia. 
Derivation or THE Names. 
ee in honour of Professor Dahl, of Copenhagen. Scapicera, scape- 
aring. 
SynonyMeEs. 
Dau ia scaPiceRa. Link et Otto. Knowles Floral Cabinet, t. 118. 
