Dahlia. 
(POMP.) 
T HE Dahlia is a native of Mexico, where Baron Humboldt 
found it growing in sandy meadows several hundred 
feet above the level of the sea. It was brought to England 
in 1789, but was neglected and the genus lost. It ornamented 
the royal gardens of the Escurial, at Madrid, for several years 
before Spanish jealousy would permit it to be introduced into 
the other countries of Europe. But it is said that it neither 
improved or exhibited any change under their management. 
Count Lelieur having by some means obtained a root from 
the Dons, introduced it into France, where it soon attracted 
attention. From that time it engaged the notice of conti¬ 
nental floriculturists, who propagated the plant so copiously, 
that at the general peace in 1814, English travellers were as 
much astonished by its profusion as they were delighted with 
its richness and brilliancy. 
It derives its name from a countryman of the celebrated 
Linnaeus, Piofessor Andrew Dahl, a Swedish botanist: he pre¬ 
sented it in 1804 to Lady Holland, who was its first successful 
English cultivator. 
Its coarse foliage, gaudy flowers, and want of perfume seem 
to have prevented its becoming a favourite with our poets 
Mrs. Sigourney just alludes to it as a florist’s flower, in her 
“ Farewell: ” 
“ I have no stately dahlias, nor greenhouse flowers to weep, 
But I passed the rich man’s garden, and the mourning there was deep 
For the crownless queens all drooping hung amid the wasted sod ’ 
Like Boadicea, bent with shame beneath the Roman rod. ” 
