2 The Amateur* s Book of the Dahlia 



ever done. Their houses were well built and of 

 wonderful design; and, moreover, they planted 

 beautiful flower gardens about them. 



The tales which these men had to tell, and the 

 trophies which they carried back, brought many 

 other bands of Spaniards. Finally, in 1518, 

 Hernando Cortez penetrated into Mexico itself 

 and soon conquered this marvellous land and 

 founded the colony of New Spain. 



So impressed were the Spaniards by all they 

 found that in 1570 King Philip II sent Fran- 

 cisco Hernandez to study the resources of that 

 country. There he undertook to write a book 

 describing the plants and animals which he had 

 found ("Plants and Animals of New Spain"); 

 but it was not published until 1615, long after 

 his death. Only the edition published in Rome 

 has the drawings which he made with such 

 care. 



This book shows two specimens of dahlias 

 which he called by their Aztec names, Acocotli 

 and Cocoxochitl, meaning "Water-pipe" or 

 "Water-cane," and "Cane-flower." Hernandez 

 was neither a botanist nor an artist, and it is not 

 easy to trace any similarity between his draw- 

 ings and the wild Mexican dahlias of to-day. The 

 first was a duplex dahlia and the second, un- 

 doubtedly, a peony-flowered type. Both had 



