22 
THE GAKDENING WORLD. 
September 14, 1889. 
HISTORY OF THE DAHLIA. 
By Shirley Hibbep.d.* 
Although the history of the Dahlia as a garden flower 
extends over only one hundred years, it is an eventful 
history, and the historian may more easily indulge in 
profuseness of detail than compress within moderate 
limits the points that are likely to prove at once the 
most useful and interesting to the participators in this 
Centenary Conference. Happily there are not many 
knotty questions presented by the facts on record ; hut 
these facts have been variously presented, and in 
glancing at the existing histories, so-called, of this 
flower, I find much confusion and contradiction, and 
often a sad misapprehension on the part of the historian 
of the hearings of the particulars at his command. 
Thus in the Gardeners’ Magazine of October 9th, 1880, 
will be found two short histories of the flower, one from 
Mr. Max Deegen, of Kostritz, the other from Dr. 
Comstock, whose Illustrated Botany, published in New 
York in 1847, contains much valuable information of 
special interest to florists. Max Deegen begins by 
saying that the Dahlia was introduced to England in 
1787 ; to France in 1802 ; to Germany in 1804. It 
cannot be allowed in an assembly solemnly convened 
for the glorification of the Dahlia, that the promoters 
are too late by so much as two years. No ; if Max 
Deegen and the Horticultural Magazine of 1839, which 
appears to be his authority, are in the right, it will be 
but proper for me, as president, to dissolve this assembly 
and declare ]the centenary as a thing silently accom¬ 
plished two years since, leaving us nothing in that way 
unless, perhaps, we might justify our meeting by 
making arrangements for the bicentenary in 1987. It 
will be my duty to abolish Max Deegen, and put this 
celebration on a firm historical foundation. We cannot 
move a step without referring to the books. There 
appears to be 
No Earlier Description of the Dahlia 
Than that by Francisco Hernandez, physician to 
Philip II. of Spain, in his four books on the plants 
and animals of New Spain, published in Spanish in the 
year 1615. In this work our flower appears under its 
Mexican name of Acoctli, and the notice is particularly 
interesting, for two species are figured—D. variabilis 
and D. crocata—and both have single flowers. We 
appear thus to secure somewhat of a triumph for the 
florists, but unfortunately, in a work founded on that of 
Hernandez, and published at Rome by Vitalis Mascardi 
in 1651, there appears the figure of a double flower, but 
whether it was obtained as such direct from the domain 
of nature, or through the garden from the hands of 
man, there is no sufficient record, and we may not, 
therefore, say that the florists had commenced opera¬ 
tions at so early a date. We speak of this as a double, 
but the drawing is so bad that it may be a single. It 
is of importance to observe that we lose the Dahlia for 
130 years, when it turns up again in 1787, not, as in 
the former case, for the special advantage of Spaniards, 
but this time for Frenchmen in a most exclusive sort 
of manner. Nicholas Joseph Thierry de Menonville 
was sent to America to secure the cochineal insect. He 
was to act on the principle of Iago when he said, “put 
money in thy purse,” for the plant and the insect were 
both to be secured ; and they were secured, with a few 
other things that were worthy of the labour. M. 
Menonville published in 1787 a treatise on the culture 
of the Nopal and the “education” of the cochineal, 
and therein described the Dahlias he had seen in a 
garden near Guaxaca, which, he says, had large Aster¬ 
like flowers, stems as tall as a man, and leaves like 
those of the Elder tree. Thus the deceptive date is 
obtruded on the history, yet there is no record of the 
Dahlia being brought into England in 1787, but after 
a lapse of two years we hear of it again as actually 
introduced to this country by a lady, whose name 
should this day be remembered with gratitude as a 
generous contributor to our garden of florists’ flowers. 
Introduction by the Marchioness of Bute. 
In the year 1789, Vincentes Cervantes, director of the 
Botanic Garden at Mexico, forwarded seeds of the 
Dahlia to the Royal Gardens at Madrid, then under 
the direction of Abbe Cavanilles. The Marquis of Bute 
was at this time ambassador from England at the 
Court of Spain ; and the Marchioness, who cherished a 
true sympathy with floriculture, obtained some of these 
seeds, which she cultivated in pots in a greenhouse, 
but failed to keep them beyond two or three years. 
The Marchioness of Bute was in correspondence with 
the professors at the different botanic gardens in 
Euripe, and thus had opportunities for acquiring, and 
'Read at the Dahlia Centenary Conference. 
perhaps for diffusing, information on such matters, and 
her loss of the plants may therefore be accepted as in 
some part testifying to the prevalence of misconcep¬ 
tions as to the requirements and characteristics of the 
Dahlia. In 1802 an English nurseryman, John Fraser, 
of Sloane Square, a collector of American plants, 
obtained from Paris some seeds of Dahlia coccinea, 
which flowered in a greenhouse in 1803, at his nursery, 
and supplied a subject for the plate in the Botanical 
Magazine, t. 762, which secured to the plant a proper 
place in the English garden. Thus it happens that 
in Aiton’s Hortus Kevoensis the Dahlia obtained a 
place, two species and three varieties being entered in 
the second edition, published 1813. 
The Abbe Cavanilles named the plant in honour of 
M. Andre Dahl, a Swedish botanist, author of a work 
on the Linmean system, published in 1784, and 
Cavanilles figured it in his leones et Descriptiones 
Plantarum, the publication of which was commenced 
at Madrid in 1791. Comstock tells us that it was 
Humboldt who sent the seeds to Madrid in 1789, but 
Humboldt had not at that time set a foot on the 
American continent, for he was pursuing his studies 
under Heyne and Blumenbach from 1787 to 1789, and 
he did not visit America until February, 1800. 
For ten years the Abbe Cavanilles managed to keep 
his Dahlias, and perhaps I might say that in that time 
he actually improved them, for one of them produced 
semi-double flowers in October, 1790, and in the January 
following was figured in the leones as D. pinnata, which 
was the early name of our D. variabilis, and thus we 
fix the date of 
The First Doubling of the Dahlia in Europe 
as occurring in the first year of its flowering at Madrid. 
The variety named Rosea was very soon afterwards 
established at Dresden, for in the year 1800 it was sent 
from Dresden to Berlin with the D. pinnata and D. 
coccinea already cited, the entire collection of Dahlias 
of that date consisting of these three only. In 1802 
Cavanille sent them to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, 
and to M. Decandolle, at Montpellier, and thus the 
flower was fairly started on the way to become known 
throughout Europe. 
In the year 1799 Humboldt and Bonpland left Madrid 
in the ship Pizarro for the American continent, and 
commenced those explorations which have secured for 
them, as scientific travellers, immortal renown. In 
descending from the table land of Mexico towards the 
Pacific coast, they found the Dahlia in a prairie between 
Areo and Patzcuaro, at a height of five thousand feet 
above the level of the sea, a fact which at once explained 
the failures of Lady Bute and others to grow it as a 
plant needing much heat and a constantly close atmos¬ 
phere under glass. Kew had obtained the plant, and 
had lost it as a consequence of stewing or roasting it, as 
moist or dry cookery might happen to he in favour. 
At Paris the same thing had occurred, for M. Andre 
Thouin, director of the Jardin des Plantes, placed his 
Dahlias in a stove, the “tropical ” idea haunting him, 
as apparently all others had been haunted, so that it 
was in the nature of a miracle that the plant escaped 
the killing treatment to which it was so generally 
subjected. Many of the most useful plants have passed 
through a similar ordeal, one of the most notable 
examples being the Aucuba Japonica, which proved a 
most troublesome customer, always at death’s door, 
while confined in a hot prison ; but was found capable 
of taking care of itself when turned out and left to 
contend with the elements. In 1804, M. Thouin 
published a treatise on the subject in the Annales du 
Museum d’ Histoira Naturelle, in which he presented 
engravings of this new favourite ; but the best that he 
could say for it was that he had persuaded it to live. 
The Name of the Plant. 
This appears to be the proper place for a brief discourse 
on the name of the plant. We call it colloquially the 
Da-li-a, but as it is named after Dahl, the vowel sound 
should be broad, D«7i-li-a ; but custom is against its 
use in that way, and to avoid appearing pedantic most 
of us adhere to the Day- li-a. It should be understood 
that this name has priority of all others, and we are 
justified by history no less than by custom in using it. 
The genus of the same name instituted by Thunberg 
represents a group of Witch-Hazels—plants far removed 
from the subject of our present attention. The genus 
Dalea, named after Dale, the friend of Ray, is in the 
Fabaceous order, and also far removed from our noble 
Mexican flower. A competing name, Georgina, ran 
Dahlia a race for a season, for Professor YVildenow, of 
Berlin, owing to a misapprehension, felt the necessity 
of suppressing the name adopted by Cavanilles, and of 
substituting Georgina in honour of Professor Georgi, of 
St. Petersburgh, which a writer in R.evue Horticole 
declared was adopted by English cultivators to rob 
Dahl of his honour and exalt in his place that of 
George III, King of England, in whose reign the flower 
was introduced. The name Georgina was much used 
in Germany and England, and so late as 1832 I find it 
entered in an index to Loudon’s Gardeners' Magazine. 
That, as you all remember, was the year of the Reform 
Bill, and a reform was effected in this matter, for in 
the year following, H. Reynard, Esq., president of the 
Beverley Horticultural Society, proposed to re-instate 
the original name, and thereupon the reform was 
accomplished. In Loudon’s Gardeners' Magazine for 
1834, page 607, will be found the record of the event, 
with the following declaration by Mr. Loudon :—“ Our 
authority for adopting the name Georgina was Mr. 
Sweet; but Mr. David Don has proved to us that the 
name Dahlia was applied one year before that of 
Georgina. The name Dahlia, therefore, shall in future 
be used by us.” The year 1804 forms 
The Second Epoch in the History of the Dahlia. 
I n that year it was figured in the Botanical Magazine 
from Mr. Fraser’s specimens that flowered in Sloane 
Street. Seeds were again sent from Madrid, this time 
by Lady Holland to M. Buonaiuti, librarian to Lord 
Holland, at Holland House. This gentleman raised 
all three varieties, and they flowered satisfactorily and 
were figured in the botanical periodicals of that day. 
From this time the cultivation tended in the direction 
of the exhibition that is here to-day, for the end of all 
who possessed the plant was to effect some “improve¬ 
ment,” the great aim being the production of double 
flowers. Now, although I have spoken of one of the 
early figures as apparently showing a semi-double 
flower, this must have been transitory, for in 1806 the 
gardeners at Malmaison and St. Cloud were striving 
after double flowers, and appear not to have got beyond 
the three varieties they began with—namely, Coccinea, 
Purpurea, and Croeea. But in 1812, M. Donkelaar, of 
the Botanic Garden at Louvain, Belgium, raised a 
number of plants which all produced single flowers. 
The next year he made a further essay and obtained 
some semi-double flowers ; and again he operated and 
secured flowers perfectly double, and the honour appears 
beyond all doubt to be due to him of launching the 
Dahlia on the tide of time as a fine florist’s flower, one 
quality of which must be a capability for infinite 
variation. This, we will say, brings us to the year 
1814, which we may term 
The Third Epoch in the History of the Flower. 
It had become established at Erfurt and Leipzig 
simultaneously with its establishment at Louvain 
in 1812, and Haage had raised a flower that was 
more than single, if not quite double. It was 
admired, however, chiefly for its violet colour, which 
was at that time new to the Dahlia. In 1814 the 
Continent was thrown open by the approach of the 
allies to Paris, and the British amateurs found Dahlias 
in plenty in French gardens ; many of which soon 
found their way to this country and were taken charge 
of with enthusiasm by the hopeful florists. Amongst 
the French amateurs who at this time cultivated the 
flower with assiduity, mention should be made of M. 
Lelieur, of Sevres, near Paris, and the Comte de 
Vandes, who imported French varieties into England, 
and communicated specimens to Dr. John Sims for the 
two figures published in the Botanical Magazine, in the 
year 1817. It has happened often in the history of the 
arts and sciences that they have had birth on the 
continent of Europe, and have reached us when some¬ 
what advanced ; but that having made a beginning the 
people of this country have outstripped their foreign 
benefactors in a lively interpretation of the Baconian 
maxim, “The true end of science is to enrich human 
life with useful arts and inventions.” 
The Appearance of Double Flowers. 
We must keep in mind that about the year 1S15 double 
flowers were beginning to appear. But I shall invite 
your attention to the figure of Dahlia superflua, the 
“crimson fertile-rayed Dahlia” that appears in the 
Botanical Register for 1S15, for it represents our “show ” 
Dahlia, the D. variabilis, in its best form as a single 
flower, not far removed from its wild Mexican form 
certainly, but in a grand condition as regards its rich 
crimson colour, its great spread of narrow elliptic rays, 
and the small but brilliant golden centre. Such a 
flower would now be prized, and would make a new 
class of singles. If history is once more capable of 
repeating itself, surely this original Dahlia that we 
have improved out of existence will be restored to us. 
Sydenham Edwards, the then editor of the Register, 
