DAHLIA. THE DAHLIA. 
Class XXII. DICECIA.— Order I. MONANDRIA. 
Natural Order, HAMELIDE^.— THE WITCH-HAZEL TRIBE. 
The Dahlia* is a small genus of Composite flowers, of which three species only are known, all natives of 
Mexico. D. variabilis itself is, in its wild state, a bushy herbaceous plant, seven or eight feet high, with 
single purple or lilac flowers, and is by no means remarkable for its beauty. In cultivation, however, it is 
so readily improved in size and form, and sports into such endless varieties in stature, leaves and flowers, 
that it has become the most extensively cultivated florist’s plant of the present day. Its innumerable sorts 
are the glory of our gardens in the autumn, and are quite unrivalled at that season of the year: they are 5 
however, destroyed by the earliest frosts. Each season produces its favourite varieties, and these are in 
their turn eclipsed by others of a newer or a choicer form. For those that are most in vogue the nursery- 
men’s lists must be consulted, for their’s 'is but a fleeting reputation. The Dahlia was named in honour of 
Dahl, a Swedish botanist, and the following account of its introduction is to be found in the Transactions 
of the Horticultural Society, by R. A. Salisbury, Esq., April 8th, 1808. “No flowers which have been 
lately introduced into the gardens of this island are more showy than the Dahlias ; and they possess the 
additional merit of being produced at a season when most others arq decaying ; and by a little management 
these plants may be made to blossom early. The first account I am able to trace of these plants which are 
natives of Mexico, is in Hermandez ’ History of that country, published in 1661. The first species. Dahlia 
Sambucifolia was introduced into this country by the Right Honourable Lady Holland, who sent seeds 
from Madrid in May, 1804, which have produced all the vai’ieties. Though the seeds arrived so late in 
this country several of them flowered the succeeding autumn at Holland House, by the constant atten- 
tion of Mr. Buonanti in pressing out the moisture, which is collected among the florets after the calyx 
closes ; a number of seeds were ripened in 1805, and some of these were liberally communicated to me in 
April, 1806. I had no opportunity of sowing them till May, when they were put into pots of light rich 
earth, plunged to their rims in a bed of dung, which had nearly lost its heat, having been made two months. 
A dozen plants soon came up, and on the first of June, being about 5 inches high as well as stiff, from 
throwing down the glasses in the day-time, were transplanted into separate pots of 2 ~ inches diameter. The 
two strongest were then removed without breaking any of their fibres into larger pots of very rich mould, 
and five into pots a size larger, of poor sandy mould; all of those plants were twice more transplanted into 
somewhat larger pots before the tenth of August, by which time the two largest were four feet high, and the 
others not much shorter, though less branched ; they were all removed from the hot-bed frame, having 
been exposed to the open air both night and day, the last month. They all grew rapidly in August and 
September, but I despaired of seeing any flowers till the middle of the latter month, when almost every 
branch terminated in a flower; the first of which opened on the 7th of October. All the plants ripened 
seeds more or less, and were suffered to remain in the ground with their decaying stems uncut till a frost, 
which was severe enough to freeze the borders, an inch deep. M. Thiery Menonville, in the interesting 
detail of his journey to Guaxaca, published in 1778? is the next author, who to the best of my knowledge 
has noticed any species of Dahlia. It is well known that this botanist was employed by the French 
Minister, to steal the Cochineal Insect from the Spaniards. In this dangerous mission, he tells us, that 
having entered one of the gardens in the suburbs of that city, adjoining to a plantation of Nopals upon 
which the insect feeds, he was struck with the beauty “d'une Astere violette et double, aussi grande que 
celles de France, mais produite par un arbuste tres semblable pour les feuilles pinnies a notre sureau.” 
From the violet colour of the flower, I am inclined to think that this is the species which I have called 
“ Dahlia Sphondylifolia.” — “The roots (says my brother in his outlines of botany) of the Dahlia, although 
fleshy, and abounding in farina, have so disagreeable a flavour as not to be esculent ; bnt their splendid 
* The species which we have represented is termed rouge et noir. 
