THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
141 
no less than by consideration of their individual char¬ 
acters, and if it be urged in favor of their - specific dis¬ 
tinction that they differ too widely in general com¬ 
plexion, Nature furnishes a ready answer to the objec¬ 
tion in the obvious sportiveness of the plant now before 
hs. When single and double flowers grow side by side, 
we kuow the plant to be capable of rapid variation, and 
the fact is in the nature of a rebuke to those weedists 
who insist that double flowers are unnatural things that 
have-been brought into existence by the machinations 
of the florists. 
Dahlia excelsa was introduced into Great Britain by a 
happy accident, thus described by Mr. Hemsley in the 
Gardeners’ Chronicle, October 4, 1879: “Its introduc¬ 
tion into this country was rather singular. Some thick 
branches or stems of it were used to protect a basket of 
Mexican plants destined to Messrs. Loddiges. When 
they reached this country (in 1830) they showed signs of 
life, and were planted in the open ground, growing to a 
height of ten feet the same season, but perishing the 
following winter.” Thus the plant was gained and 
lost; but in 1834 it was properly introduced by Mr. W. 
Bates, who described it as attaining a height of thirty 
This variety of the Dahlia (D. excelsa). is one of the 
most remarkable of the species, and is said to grow in 
Mexico thirty feet high, with a trunk thick in propor¬ 
tion. A writer in the Gardeners’ Magazine speaks of it 
being known in gardens as D. arborea, and says: “ On 
the 9th of January last, this Dahlia was brought under 
the notice of the Floral Committee of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society by Mr. Green, gardener to Sir George 
Macleay, of Pendell Court, a peculiar interest attaching 
to the branch presented in the fact that it bore both sin¬ 
gle and double flowers. Of the peculiarities of the 
“double,” as compared with the “single ” flowers, it is 
not necessary to speak, for it is a question of organog¬ 
raphy in connection with the entire composite order. 
It will be more to the present purpose to say that in 
designating this the Tree Dahlia we have in view to 
separate two grand garden plants from the host of 
Dahlias with which by name, almost more than by 
character, they are associated. Dahlia imperialis, a 
well-known plant, and Dahlia excelsa, which is some¬ 
what of a rarity at present, are in all probability varie¬ 
ties of one and the same species. This conjecture may 
be sustained by the geographical relations of the plants 
