224 Account of the Genus Dahlia. 



distinguish them in winter ; the tubers of the superflua are 

 always closely united to the main stem, whilst those of the 

 frustranea are more or less appended to it, by short strings 

 or fibres. 



The plants from which the three supposed species were 

 described, were sent from the Botanic Garden at Mexico, to 

 the Royal Garden at Madrid, in which the one called by 

 Professor Cavanilles pinnata, flowered in October, 1789 ; 

 his rosea and coccinea produced fl owers a few years after- 

 wards, and all were successively figured and described by 

 him in his Icones, the first in 1791, the two last in 1794: 

 they do not seem, however, to have been successfully treated, 

 for it appears that with him they attained the height of three 

 or four feet only, and did not flower till October. In 1802, 

 plants of each were transferred from Madrid, to the Jardin 

 des Plantes at Paris, where they grew so well, as to enable 

 Mons. Thouin, in 1804, not only to describe and figure 

 them, but also to treat on their cultivation. In May, 1804, 

 seeds of the three kinds were sent from Madrid, by Lady 

 Holland, to Mr. Buonaiuti, in England ; from these, good 

 plants were produced ; one of which, the pinnata, flowered 

 in the September following, and was figured by Andrews in 

 the Botanist's Repository, In the succeeding year, plants of 

 the rosea and the coccinea also flowered at Holland House. 

 Though this importation of the seeds was the most success- 

 ful, as to its produce (for from it nearly all the plants then 

 in our gardens were obtained), yet the original introduction 

 of the first opecies was (on the authority of the Hortus Kew- 

 ensis) from Spain, in 1789, by the Marchioness of Bute; 

 but it is probable that the plant so introduced was soon after 



