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Account of the Genus Dahlia. 



flowers, are most numerous, for the collections in the princi- 

 pal nurseries round London consist of from 100 to 150 with 

 names, exclusive of unnamed ones, all of them having dif- 

 ferences, and being of such merit that the most inferior would 

 have been eagerly sought after, four years ago ; in general, 

 only one flower is produced on each peduncle, though some 

 plants have two ; the colour of the florets of the ray of the 

 flower are of different hues, passing from the darkest purples 

 through lighter shades, into various deep and lighter reds, ap- 

 proaching to scarlet, and proceeding through pale purples 

 and lilacs, into what have been called rose-colours, but which 

 may be more properly described as buffs ( nankin of the 

 French,) gradually becoming paler until they arrive at dif- 

 ferent shades of yellow. In the gradation of the colour of 

 all, with the exception of the white varieties, it seems as if 

 purple and pale yellow were at the extremities of the scale, 

 and that the intermediate hues were composed of a mixture 

 of red with one or other of these colours. Perhaps this 

 observation may not be found to apply in some few T instan- 

 ces ; there may be exceptions to so general a rule : but I 

 have in vain sought after a pure scarlet ; and I have not been 

 able to discover a pink or flesh coloured flower, free from all 

 tinge of either purple or yellow. Mons. De Candolle, in 

 his Essay on the Genus, has observed, that it is not probable 

 we shall ever see a blue one, since the variation is from pur- 

 ple to yellow. He considers blue and yellow to be the 

 fundamental types of the colours of flowers, and that they 

 mutually exclude each other ; yellows pass readily into red 

 or white, but never into blue ; and in like manner, blue 

 flowers are changed by cultivation, into red and white, but 

 never into yellow. 



