THE DAHLIA : ITS REPUTED INTRODUCTION IN 1789. 305 
THE DAHLIA : ITS REPUTED INTRODUCTION IN 1789. 
By C. Harman Payne, F.R.H.S. 
For more than a hundred years it has been asserted by every English 
writer on the history of the Dahlia that it was first introduced into 
England by Lady Bute, otherwise the Marchioness of Bute, in 1789. 
Having long had good reason to doubt the accuracy of this state- 
ment, I propose in the present paper to set out the results obtained 
after a critical examination of the facts as recorded by authorities 
who have dealt with the matter in their writings. 
There are few florist's flowers that have been so persistently ill- 
treated by the historian as this popular autumn favourite. The 
errors and mis-statements regarding its introduction, the origin of its 
name, and other circumstances connected with it, would fill a paper by 
themselves, and they can be only briefly referred to here as they lie 
somewhat beyond the scope of my paper. There is no doubt that 
the time has come when much of the historical and literary matter 
presented to the flower-loving public by our older writers on the 
Dahlia is in need of verification and revision. 
Before proceeding to give an account of one of the most important 
errors that have crept into Dahlia history and the steps taken by 
which it has been revealed, it will be useful to relate a few of the 
main facts in the history of the Dahlia as they are generally accepted 
by the best-informed students of floricultural history. 
It may be taken for granted that the first Dahlias grown in Europe 
were those sent from Mexico by Vincenzo Cervantes to the Royal 
Botanic Garden at Madrid. The native Mexican name, as we gather 
from Francisco Hernandez, was Acocotli (see " Rerum medicarum 
Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus, seu Plantarum" &c, Rome, 1649, where 
the plant is figured by him under that name, and also his " Cuatro libros 
de; la Naturaleza y Virtudes medicinales de las Plantas y Animales 
de la Nueva Espana," Mexico, 1615). This introduction into Spain 
took place, as we are told, in 1789. 
Although some writers say that the new-comers were flowered by 
the Abbe Cavanilles in that year, it is more than probable that he 
did not do so, at any rate satisfactorily, till the following autumn. 
Cavanilles, in his "Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum," the first 
volume of which appeared in 1791, figured and described (tab. 80) 
one of these plants which he called Dahlia, adding in a footnote 
" In honorem D. Andreae Dahl, Sueci botanici." The specific name 
given to this plant of a new genus was pinnata, subsequently called 
by some other authors purpurea. Cavanilles says of it : " Vidi vivam 
in Regio horto Matritensi mense Octobri," which may reasonably be 
VOL. XLII. X 
