C 84] 



XV. Observations on the different Species of Dahlia, and the 

 best Method of cultivating them in Great Britain. By 

 Richard Anthony Salisbury, Esq, F. R. S. $c. 



Read April 5, 1808. 



No flowers which have been lately introduced into the gar- 

 dens of this island are more showy than the Dahlias ; and 

 they possess the additional merit of being produced at a sea- 

 son, when most others are decaying ; nevertheless, it will 

 appear in the subsequent pages, that by a little management 

 these plants may be made to blossom at a much earlier pe- 

 riod ; and that in vallies, or low situations, where our au- 

 tumnal frosts frequently cut them off early in October, it is 

 the only method of obtaining their flowers at all. I am 

 more emboldened to offer these results of my own experi- 

 ence to the Horticultural Society, as they have turned out 

 very different to what was expected, from the hints thrown 

 out upon this very subject, by one of the first Gardeners in 

 the world. 



The earliest account I am able to trace of these plants, 

 which are all natives of Mexico, is in Hernandez' History 

 of that country, published in 1651, where two species are 

 figured. The first, he says, grows in the mountains of Qua- 

 uhnahuac, and is called Acocotli by the inhabitants ; that 

 it has leaves composed of five leaflets, some of which are sinu- 

 ated, and slender peduncles, with pale red stellated flowers; 

 that the roots are tuberous, strong and bitter in taste, and 



