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XIV. On Dahlias. By Mr. William Smith, Under 

 Gardener in the Arboretum Department of the Garden of 

 the Horticultural Society at Chisvjick. 



Read December 5, 1826. 



It is not proposed to give in this Paper any statement re- 

 specting the history of the Dahlias, or to enter into details on 

 the genus. All that is necessary, and indeed all that could 

 be advanced on those points, has been already given by Mr. 

 Sabine in the third Volume* of these Transactions, in his 

 Paper which was read in October, 1818. It is only intended, 

 at present, to describe the Double Varieties, those having now 

 become almost the only objects of careful cultivation. Their 

 number is so great, as to exceed what any one individual will 

 ever desire to possess ; a selection of the best sorts is there- 

 fore especially necessary. At the time when the Paper 

 just referred to was published, the single varieties only 

 were abundant, the number of double ones was very limited, 

 but they rapidly increased, and have now nearly expelled 

 the single ones from gardens of repute. The extension of 

 sorts has however been limited to the Dahlia superflua ; the 

 varieties of Dahlia frustranea have but little multiplied, and 

 no double flowers of that species have yet been produced. 

 The brilliancy of the colours of the blossoms of the Dahlia 

 frustranea, however, is such that it might have been expected 



* See Horticultural Transactions, Vol. in. p. 217. 



