bers. Stem perennial, very thick, becoming woody, growing to the 
height of twenty feet and upwards, less branched, and assuming more 
the aspect of a tree than any other species, hollow inside, smooth and 
glaucous on the surface, marked with horizontal rings formed by the 
‘broad stem-clasping base of the petioles, and sometimes emitting 
near the base a great quantity of fibrous roots. LEavEs opposite, at- 
taining the length of two feet and a half, by about two feet in breadth, 
doubly pinnatipartite, the general petioles broadly connate round the 
stem, the segments borne on sharp partial footstalks, those of the lower 
leaves ovate and heart-shaped at the base, those of the upper leaves, 
especially the end ones, often contracted at the base,acuminate, toothed, 
nearly smooth or with a fewshort scattered hairs,of a pale ¢l 
underneath. FLOWER HEADS on long opposite monocephalous pedun- 
cles, collected five to eight together in a sort of corymb at the end of the 
branches, with occasionally a few axillary solitary ones along the stem. 
OUTER INVOLUCRE consisting of five or six linear spreading foliaceous 
squame, the inner f about twel 
oblong. obtuse. erect.m 
©, of ? 2 Ms 
ones. FLoretsin th 
i Cir iattl- 
ral state, so as to give to the head of flowers the form known in other 
Dahlias by the name of anemone-flowered. The florets of the ray ap- 
pear to be nearly in their ordinary state, and to be naturally neutral and 
sterile, those of the disk are shorter but all converted into irre 
cular! 
formed semi 5 “ 
-ligulate sterile florets having lost their original colour to 
assume that of the ray. All traces of the organs of fructification are 
obliterated in all the florets. 
Poputar aND GeoGrapnicat Notice, The genus Dahlia con- 
tains three published species, one of them, the Dahlia variabilis, is the 
origin of those innumerable varietiés which for some years past have 
formed the chief ornament of our gardens at the close of the summer, 
Another species, the Dahlia coccinea, has also been for some time in cul- 
tivation, and is a desirable plant, on account of th 
the ray, although its flowers seldom become doubl 
able, it cannot be-made to intermingle with the c 
bilis, so as to form hybrids. This circumstance, 
ent nature of the florets of the ray, 
are female and fertile in the othe 
Site be considered as sufficient 
There is, indeed, nothing but thi 
rets of the ray, 
e rich colouring of 
e,and what is remark- 
ommon Dahlia yaria- 
together with the differ- 
which are neuter inthe one, whilst they 
r, would in the case of other Compo- 
to separate them into different genera. 
S same character, derived from the flo- 
which distinguishes the whole series of Coreopsider 
