Empalement double. Blossom radiated, with the rays equalling in number the segments of the empalement: the florets pedicelled. Receptacle chaffy. Summit plumose.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Dahlia foliis pinnatis: pinnulis quinque, ovatis, acutis, dentatis: floribus duplicibus: caulis humilis.
Dahlia with pinnated leaves: the pinnules five, ovate, pointed, and toothed: flowers double: stem low.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. One of the radiating florets.
2. A floret of the disk with its scale.
3. A flower spread open.
4. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified.
This double-flowered dwarf Dahlia is certainly the most attractive of the genus. It is supposed to be only a variety of the D. pinnata, but the variation is almost powerful enough to constitute a species; as, besides the difference in its flowers, we have never found it arrive to more than half the height of the pinnata, although we have seen it every autumn for four years in luxuriant bloom. At present it is a scarce plant, and appears to be not quite so hardy as the taller species, nor so easily increased. Our figure was made from a plant in the collection of the Right Hon. Lady Holland, at Holland House, Kensington.[Pg 103]
