6 The Amateur's Booh of the Dahlia 



In his honour did Cavanilles name this new 

 plant, adding "pinnata" to describe the pinnate 

 or winged leaves. 



At that time the Marquis of Bute was British 

 Ambassador to Spain, and his wife took such an 

 interest in this new flower that she begged a few 

 seeds and sent them home for trial there. Plants 

 from these seeds did not survive, and it was 

 not until 1804, when Lady Holland sent seeds 

 once more from Madrid, that dahlias really be- 

 came known in England. 



Cavanilles sent seeds to the various botanic 

 gardens of Europe — ^to Berlin, Dresden, Paris, 

 and Montpellier. In Germany, despite the 

 honour done to Mons. Dahl, they were for a 

 long time called "Georginen" after Professor 

 Georgi; and even now the catalogues of that 

 country list some of the varieties under that 

 name. However, the name "dahlia" must al- 

 ways stand as having first been given by the 

 great Cavanilles; unless we wish to go even 

 farther back to the native word, " Acocotli." 



After about 1810 dahlias became more and 

 more popular, and growers continuously sought 

 to double and improve them. Haage of Leipzig, 

 Hartweg of Karlsruhe, Donckelaar of Louvain, 

 and Lelieur and the Comte de Vandes of France 

 succeeded in producing large full flowers of many 



