226 Account of the Genus Dahlia. 



Mons. De Candolle, I am informed, obtained also from 

 Madrid, the plants which he cultivated at Montpelier, about 

 the same time they were sent to Paris. His Memoir was 

 printed so late as 1810, and he therein describes only five 

 varieties of superflua, viz. rubra, purpurea, Ulacina, pallida, 

 and flavescens, and three varieties of frustranea, viz. coccinea, 

 crocea, and Jlava; he probably had not, when he wrote, ob- 

 tained any double flowers, though he evidently expected 

 such would soon be produced. 



Mons. Otto, as early as 1800, obtained from Dresden, for 

 the Royal Garden at Berlin, a plant of the pallida of the 

 Hortus Berolinensis ; and in 1802, a plant of the purpurea 

 of the same work, was sent to him from Madrid ; but he had 

 no new varieties from his own seed till 1806. 



Thus it appears, that the chief gardens of France, Ger- 

 many and England, were originally stocked with plants from 

 Madrid ; but a fresh supply was brought from Mexico by the 

 Baron Humboldt, who, in 1804, gave native seeds to the 

 Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and some were also sent by him, 

 in the following year, to Mons. Otto, part of which pro- 

 duced the first plants of the coccinea, which were grown in 

 the Berlin Garden. 



The history of the Dahlias now approaches the period, 

 when they began to give indications of their future extensive 

 increase in variety ; for the account of what was done on the 

 continent, I am indebted to the communications of the two 

 gentlemen, by whose skill and industry, principally, I believe 

 such great changes were effected in France and Germany. 



The Count Lelieur began to direct his attention to the 

 Dahlias in 1808 : from the garden at Malmaison, he intro- 



