On the different Species of Dahlia. 85 



according to* the fashionable jargon of his time, hot and dry 

 in the third degree ; that an ounce in weight, taken internally, 

 is a powerful medicine, alleviating pains in the bowels, ex- 

 pelling flatulence, increasing the urinary discharge, promoting 

 sweat, strengthening cold languid stomachs, excellent against 

 the cholic, resolving obstructions and dissipating tumours if 

 externally applied : this is clearly the pale red variety of 

 Dahlia Sambucifolia ; the second he calls Acocotli Ligmtici 

 facie, but gives no description of it : the figure, however, 

 though destitute of flowers, leaves no doubt that it is the 

 species called Dahlia Bidentifolia in Paradisus Londinensi&i 

 and from the size of its foliage, most probably the orange- 

 coloured variety. 



M. Thiery Menonvilie, in the interesting detail of his 

 journey to Guaxaca, published in 1787, is the next author, 

 who to the best of my knowledge, has noticed any species of 

 Dahlia. It is well known, that this Botanist was employed by 

 the French Minister, to steal the Cochineal Insect from the 

 Spaniards. In this dangerous mission, he tells us, that having 

 entered one of the gardens in the suburbs of that city, ad- 

 joining to a plantation of Nopals, upon which the Insect feeds, 

 he was struck with the beauty " dune Astere violette et double, 

 aussi grande que cellesde France, maisproduite par un arbuste 

 tres semblable pour les feuilles pinnees a notre sureau." From 

 the violet colour of the flower, I am inclined to think that this 

 is the species which I have called Dahlia Sphondylifolia. 



The third author, who has written upon these Plants, is 

 the late Abbe Cavanilles : from a semidouble variety of. 

 Dahlia Sambucifolia, which flowered at Madrid in October 

 1790, he, in the first Volume of his Icones, published in the 

 following January, first defined the characters of the genus 



