On Dahlias. 



to explain some of the terms used, to give the character 

 of what is held to be a good flower, and also to explain 

 the principles upon which the following classification is 

 founded. 



The appellation of florets, is applied in all cases to what 

 have been improperly called the petals ; they are strictly, and 

 especially in single flowers, the florets of the ray; when there is 

 any allusion to the short florets in the disk of the flowers, they 

 are distinctly called the florets of the disc. The term quilled, in 

 its strict sense, is applied to ligulate florets become tubular, but 

 it is generally used to express a tendency only to that habit. 

 In the descriptions, for the sake of discriminating the dif- 

 ferences with greater accuracy, the terms quilled, and half- 

 quilled, are used ; but for the latter term, somewhat quilled, 

 is not unfrequently substituted. The florets are said to be 

 reflexed, when the whole are bent backwards exposing the 

 disc. They are recurved, when they are turned backwards 

 at the points. The scales are the bracteae of the involucrum, 

 and in single flowers, are situated behind the florets of the ray, 

 one scale belonging to each floret ; when the florets of the 

 disc give way to, or are changed into florets resembling those 

 of the ray, the scale accompanies the transmutation ; so that 

 in double flowers a series of scales is found behind every 

 series of florets, and when these scales appear in the centre 

 or disc, without being accompanied by ligulate florets, it is 

 known, that although by some abortion they have not been 

 produced, yet that whenever the plant blossoms perfectly, 

 the flowers will be entirely double, that is, devoid of disc. 

 These scales cannot be confounded with the small scales or 



