2 
THE LADIES’ FLOWER-GARDEN 
Cavanilles afterward figured in the same work two other Dahlias, which he called D. rosea, and D. coccinea. 
Tubers and seeds of these three kinds were sent to Paris in 1802, under the idea that the tubers would be 
eatable ; but they were found so bitter and pungent, that they “ disgusted both man and beast.” In the mean 
time Lady Bute had raised, from the seeds sent her by Cavanilles, some young plants, which she kept in pots in 
a greenhouse ; but in the course of two or three years afterwards they all died without ripening seeds. In 1802, 
an English nurseryman named Fraser happening to be in Paris, obtained some of the seeds sent from Madrid of 
B. coccinea, but the flowers produced by his seedlings were bright orange instead of scarlet. Mr. Fraser’s plants 
were kept in a greenhouse, and died without ripening seed. In 1803, Mr. Woodford, a gentleman residing near 
Vauxhall, procured B. rosea from Paris, and it flowered with him in the autumn. In 1804, M. Thouin published 
a paper on the Dahlia in the Annales d’ Histoire Naturelle, in which he suggested propagating the plant by 
dividing its fascicles of tuberous roots ; keeping the roots in a state of rest during winter, and allowing the 
plants to have large pots full of rich earth. In the spring of the same year (1804), Lady Holland sent some seeds 
of B. variahilis, B. rosea, and B. coccinea from Madrid to England, having been very much struck the previous 
autumn with the beauty of their flowers in the Madrid Botanic Garden. These seeds were confided to the care 
of Mr. Buonaiuti, Librarian to Lord Holland, by whose directions they were sown in May on a hotbed in the 
garden at Holland Plouse, Kensington, where some of the seedlings flowered in the autumn of the same year. 
Mr. Buonaiuti was very fond of flowers, and knowing that the seeds of the Dahlia had never ripened in England, 
he took great pains with those of the Holland House seedlings j and by constantly pressing out the moisture 
which is collected among the florets after the calyx closes, a number of seeds were ripened in 1805, which 
produced new plants in the following year. In 1807, Mr. Salisbury tried some Dahlias for the first time in the 
open ground in liis garden at Mill Hill. About this time Professor Willdenow attempted to change the name of 
Dahlia into Georgina, in honour of a Russian botanist named Georgi, under pretence of a similar name to Dahlia 
having been previously given to another plant by Thunberg. Thunberg’s plant was, however, named in honour 
of an English botanist, Mr. Dale, and was called Dalea (see vol. i. p. 143). In 1808, Count Lelieur began to 
pay some attention to the culture of the Dahlia in the neighbourhood of Paris ; and he introduced into the 
garden at St. Cloud, from Malmaison, three varieties, from which he raised numerous others. About the same 
time, M. Otto, curator of the Botanic Garden at Berlin, obtained numerous varieties by hybridization, some of 
which were very beautiful. When the Continent was thrown open in 1814, the British amateurs and florists who 
visited it were quite astonished at the beauty of the Dahlias in the French gardens ; and since that period, many 
hundreds of Dahlias have been raised in Great Britain of great beauty of form and brilliancy of colour. 
The Dahlia, in its native state, is one of the radiate-flowered Compositge, having eight ligulate florets in the 
ray, and numerous tubular ones in the disk. The ray florets are vulgarly called the petals, and the flower 
becomes double when these ray florets are greatly increased in number, and those of the disk disappear. When 
this is not the case, the flower is considered imperfect, and cannot be exhibited, as it is said to show its eye or 
disk. Sometimes the ray florets become tubular, when they are said to be quilled. Each floret has a membra- 
nous, half transpai’ent bract, and when the florets are carefully picked out so as to leave all tlie bracts remaining, 
the Dahlia appears changed into a kind of everlasting flower of considerable delicacy and beauty. In judging of 
a flower exhibited at a show, the attention is directed to three points, viz. form, colour and size ; and of these 
form is considered by far the most important. The form of a show Dahlia should be as nearly round as possible. 
