POETRY OF FLOWERS. 
SI 
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 continental flori¬ 
culturists, who propagated the plant so copi¬ 
ously, that at the general peace in 1814, English 
travellers were as much astonished by its pro¬ 
fusion as they were delighted with its richness 
and brilliancy. 
It derives its name from a countryman of the 
celebrated Linnseus, Professor Andrew Dahl, 
a Swedish botanist: he presented it in 1804 to 
Lady Holland, who was its first successful Eng¬ 
lish cultivator. 
Its coarse foliage, gaudy flowers, and want of 
perfume seem to have prevented its becoming a 
favorite with our poets. Mrs. Sigourney just 
alludes to it as a florist’s flower, in her u Fare¬ 
well 
“ I have no stately dahlias, nor greenhouse flowers to 
weep, 
But I passed the rich man’s garden, and the mourn¬ 
ing there was deep, 
For the crownless queens all drooping hung amid 
the wasted sod, 
Like Boadicea, bent with shame beneath the Roman 
rod.” 
6 
