THE ORIGIN OF THE FLORIST'S DAHLIA. 



5 



1832, I find this name in use in Loudon's Gardener's Magazine, 

 but after that date I find no record of it except as a matter of 

 history. For, indeed, the year 1832 was a year of reform, and 

 the original name " Dahlia " was finally established through the 

 action of Mr. H. Reynard, President of the Beverley Horticultural 

 Society, who justified it on the ground of priority, and since then 

 it has not been disturbed. 



The flower having advanced in Madrid to the important 

 stage of doubling, had made no such progress elsewhere. In 

 London, Paris, Brussels, and Berlin it was valued for its beauty, 

 and the cultivators were of one mind in striving after double 

 flowers, but entirely without success until 1813, when M. 

 Donkelaar, of the Botanic Garden, Louvain (in whose honour a 

 celebrated Camellia has been named), secured a near approach to 

 the coveted prize, and a year or two afterwards obtained flowers 

 perfectly double and with the promise in them of what we under- 

 stand by the term " floral quality." The year 1814 was one of 

 great events, and, as I may not touch politics, I will proclaim it 

 a great year in the garden, for it saw the realisation of the hopes 

 of the early florists in respect to this flower, for in that year 

 Donkelaar had many double blossoms, and to him belongs the 

 honour of laying the foundations of this branch of the noble art 

 of Floriculture. Of him we may speak as being the Father of 

 the Dahlia as a florist's flower, and in that capacity he is en- 

 titled to the reverence of all true florists. Camellia Donkelaari 

 is therefore a kind of monumental flower. 



The incoming of the Dahlia coincides with the first French 

 Revolution, and the establishment of double flowers with the 

 prelude to the battle of Waterloo. In all the plant-growing 

 centres of Europe it was now attracting attention, and the 

 British amateurs who followed the allied armies to Paris found 

 there a considerable variety which were valued chiefly for their 

 distinctive colours. Through M. Lelieur, a noted French 

 amateur of Sevres, French varieties were imported into England, 

 and in due time furnished subjects for figures in the Botanical 

 Magazine, which afford us a clear idea of the garden Dahlias of 

 that date, and the taste that prevailed in selecting them. The 

 celebrated figures published by Dr. John Sims in 1817 repre- 

 sent the flower then known under the Linnaean name Dahlia 

 superflua, the fertile-rayed Dahlia, which at that time had 



