354 The Dahlia, 



being in correspondence with the Professors at the different 

 botanic gardens in Europe, Cavanilles sent her some of the 

 seeds the same year that he received them. One of the seed- 

 lings raised by Cavanilles produced semi-double flowers in 

 October, 1790, and a figure of it was published in the following 

 January in Cavanilles' Iconcs Plantarum, in which the genus 

 was named Dahlia, in honor of Andrew Dahl, a Sweedish 

 botanist ; and the plant figured, which is the same as that now 

 called D. variabilis, was christened D. piimata. Cavanilles 

 afterwards figured in the same work two other Dahlias, which 

 he called D. rosea, and D. coccinca. Tubers and seeds of 

 these three kinds were sent to Paris in 1802, under the idea 

 that the tubers would be eatable ; but they were found so bit- 

 ter and pungent, that they " disgusted both man and beast.'* 

 In the mean time, Lady Bute had raised, from the seeds sent 

 her by Cavanilles, some young plants, which she kept in pots 

 in a green-house ; but in the course of two or three years after- 

 wards, they all died without ripening seeds. In 1802, an 

 English nurseryman named Fraser, obtained in Paris some of 

 the seeds of D. coccinca, sent from Madrid, but the flowers pro- 

 duced by his seedlings were bright orange instead of scarlet. 

 Mr. Fraser's plants were kept in a green-house, and died with- 

 out ripening seed. In 1804, M. Thonin published a paper on 

 the Dahlia, in which he suggested propagating the plant by 

 dividing its fascicles of tuberous roots ; keeping the roots in a 

 state of rest during the winter, and allowing the plants to have 

 large pots full of rich earth. In the spring of the same year, 

 Lady Holland sent to England, from Madrid, some seeds, 

 which were sown by Mr. Buonaiuti, librarian to Lord Holland, 

 on a hot-bed at Holland House, when some of the seedlings 

 flowered in the autumn of the same year. In 1807, Mr. Salis- 

 bury tried some Dahlias for the first time in the open ground 

 in his garden. About this time, Professor Willdenow attempted 

 to change the name of Dahlia into Georgina, in honor of a 

 Russian botanist named Georgi, under pretence of a similar 

 name to Dahlia having been previously given to another plant 

 by Thunberg. Thunberg's plant, however, was named in 

 honor of an English botanist, Mr. Dale, and was called Dalea. 

 In 1808, Count Lelieur began to pay some attention to the cul- 



