228 Account of the Genus Dahlia. 



dark red, exactly similar to that from Stutgard ; this had at 

 first blown only semi-double. Three more double ones were 

 raised in 1815 and 1816, and he has, at present, in all, six 

 with double flowers. A pure white single one was given to 

 him in 1809, and in 1810 he raised another white one him- 

 self. He mentions that in the Catalogues of the Nurseries 

 at Berlin, from 80 to 100 sorts are enumerated for sale, but 

 that he considers the really good ones to be about thirty. 



Professor Willdenow sets down only three distinct va- 

 rieties, to each of his two species, in the enumeration of the 

 plants of the Berlin Garden, in 1809 ; those of his variabilis, 

 (superflua ) he calls purpurea, lilacina, and pallida ; those of 

 his coccinea (frustranea) are the same as described by Mons. 

 De Candolle. But in his Hortus Berolinertsis, which ap- 

 peared before his Enumeratio, he says he has several varie- 

 ties ; and he adds that the same roots vary their colours in 

 different years, which circumstance I do not find to have been 

 observed by any other person. 



In our own country, we had an early promise of great suc- 

 cess, and had we hit upon the right plan of management, in 

 keeping the plants, when produced, I do not doubt, but we 

 should have been equally successful as the continental gar- 

 deners in obtaining varieties. Mr. Buonaiuti saved seeds 

 from the plants he raised in 1804, the produce of which seeds 

 he states to have given him, in the succeeding year, nine va- 

 rieties of that which was called pinnata, two of which were 

 double, one with lilac and the other with dark purple flowers ; 

 of the single flowered plants, some were certainly dark co- 

 loured, for figures were published from them at the time ; 

 the paler coloured varieties were chiefly considered as be- 

 longing to what was then called rosea ; he had also to 



