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Account of the Genus Dahlia. 



have been produced here ; but, extraordinary as have been 

 the exertions made during the last four years to cultivate and 

 increase them in the London nurseries, they have not been 

 equal to the demand. 



The Council of the Horticultural Society having, in May, 

 1817, announced their wish for " Descriptions of the most 

 excel': ent varieties of Dahlias, with instructions for the proper 

 cultivation of them," I was in expectation that some of our 

 practical Horticulturists would have favoured us with com- 

 munications on the subject ; but as none has yet appeared, 

 I have been induced to prepare the present Essay, in which, 

 I have endeavoured to give a general view, of all that has hi- 

 therto been published on the subject, with such additions, as 

 my own observations, and the communications of friends at 

 home, and correspondents abroad, have supplied me with ; 

 amongst the latter, I have the good fortune to enumerate 

 the Count Lelieur, and M. Otto, two of the most suc- 

 cessful cultivators of the Dahlias on the Continent. 



The publications which have hitherto appeared on the 

 Dahlias, are the following: 1st, Cavanilles Icones Plan- 

 tar urn quce, fyc. in Mortis (Hispanise) hospitantur, printed at 

 Madrid in 1791, and subsequent years. 2d. Memoir e sur 

 la culture des Dahlias, &c. par Mons. Thouin, in the third 

 volume of the Annates du Museum, published at Paris, in 

 1804. 3d. A Communication from Mr. Buonaiuti, Libra- 

 rian (incorrectly styled Gardener) to Lord Holland, on 

 the Dahlias, printed at the end of Macdonald's Gar- 

 deners Dictionanj : this appears to have been written about 

 July, 1806. 4th. Observations on the different species of 

 Dahlia, &c. by Mr. Salisbury, read April, 1808, before the 



