THEDAHLIA
TheDahliahasbeenreferredtobyalmosteveryauthorwhohaswrittenonthevariationofplants，becauseitisbelievedthatallthevarietiesaredescendedfromasinglespecies，andbecauseallhavearisensince1802inFrance，andsince1804inEngland。（10/188。Salisburyin’Transact。Hort。
Soc。’volume11812pages84，92。Asemi—doublevarietywasproducedinMadridin1790。）Mr。Sabineremarksthat\"itseemsasifsomeperiodofcultivationhadbeenrequiredbeforethefixedqualitiesofthenativeplantgavewayandbegantosportintothosechangeswhichnowsodelightus。\"（10/189。’Transact。Hort。Soc。’volume31820page225。）Theflowershavebeengreatlymodifiedinshapefromaflattoaglobularform。Anemoneandranunculus—likeraces（10/190。Loudon’s’Gardener’sMag。’volume61830
page77。）whichdifferintheformandarrangementoftheflorets，havearisen;alsodwarfedraces，oneofwhichisonlyeighteeninchesinheight。
Theseedsvarymuchinsize。Thepetalsareuniformlycolouredortippedorstriped，andpresentanalmostinfinitediversityoftints。Seedlingsoffourteendifferentcolours（10/191。Loudon’s’Encyclop。ofGardening’page1035。）havebeenraisedfromthesameplant;yet，asMr。Sabinehasremarked，\"manyoftheseedlingsfollowtheirparentsincolour。\"Theperiodoffloweringhasbeenconsiderablyhastened，andthishasprobablybeeneffectedbycontinuedselection。Salisbury，writing1808，saysthattheythenfloweredfromSeptembertoNovember;in1828somenewdwarfvarietiesbeganfloweringinJune（10/192。’Transact。Hort。Soc。’volume1