Editing Dahlia (section)

==== Early history ====
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Spaniards reported finding the plants growing in Mexico in 1525, but the earliest known description is by [[Francisco Hernández de Toledo|Francisco Hernández]], physician to [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]], who was ordered to visit Mexico in 1570 to study the "natural products of that country". They were used as a source of food by the indigenous peoples, who both gathered wild specimens and cultivated crops.<ref name=":0">[http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1705.pdf Harvard Arboretum]</ref><ref name="autogenerated2002">Katz, Solomon H.; Weaver, William Woys Weaver, Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, The Gale Group, New York, 2002.</ref> The indigenous peoples variously identified the plants as "Chichipatl" ([[Toltecs]]) and "Acocotle" or "Cocoxochitl" ([[Aztecs]]). From Hernandez's perception of [[Nahuatl]] to [[Spanish language|Spanish]] (through various other translations) the word is "water cane", "water pipe", "water pipe flower", "hollow stem flower", or "cane flower", all referring to the hollow plant stems.<ref>Safford, W.E., "Notes on Dahlias", Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 1919.</ref>

Hernandez described two varieties of dahlias (the pinwheel-like ''[[Dahlia pinnata]]'' and the huge ''Dahlia imperialis'') as well as other medicinal plants of New Spain. Francisco Dominguez, an Hidalgo gentleman who accompanied Hernandez on part of his seven-year study, made a series of drawings to supplement the four volume report. Three of his drawings showed plants with flowers: two resembled the modern bedding dahlia, and one resembled the species ''[[Dahlia merckii]]''; all displayed a high degree of doubleness.<ref>Hernandez, Francisco, Nova Plantarum Animalum et Mineralium Historia. Pg. 31-32,372. 1651.</ref> In 1578, a manuscript titled ''Nova Plantarum, Animalium et Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia'', was sent back to the [[Escorial]] in Madrid.<ref>Hernández, ''Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae thesaurus'' (Rome, 1651); details of the introduction of the dahlia to European gardens are taken from {{Harvtxt|Harshberger|1897}}</ref> It was translated into Latin by Francisco Ximenes in 1615. In 1640, Francisco Cesi, President of the ''Academia dei Lincei'' of Rome, bought the Ximenes translation and, after annotating it, published it in 1649–1651 as two volumes, ''Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus Seu Nova Plantarium, Animalium et Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia''. The original manuscripts were destroyed in a fire in the mid-1600s.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Baltet | first1 = Charles | year = 1906 | title = Comment le Dahlia est arrive du Mexique en Europe | journal = Revue Horticole | volume = 78 | pages = 209–212 }}</ref>