A COSTLY BULB. I9 



Dutch. It became the fashion in Paris for women to wear 

 these flowers as corsage bouquets, and the gift of a cluster of 

 Dutch tulips was much thought of. 



The desire to possess new varieties caused a steady in- 

 crease in the price of bulbs and flowers.. Rich men and 

 enthusiastic gardeners were willing to pay extravagant prices 

 for rare specimens. Certain kinds became more highly 

 prized than others by reason of their scarcity or because of 

 some unusual feature. The Semper Augustus was then 

 thought to be the most valuable of all the tulips ever pro- 

 duced, and is famous to this day for the prices it commanded. 

 According to the writers of that time, it was a flower of the 

 most exquisite beauty. The petals were pure white marked 

 with dark red stripes of various shades, giving them the 

 effect of watered silk. Here and there was a suggestion of 

 delicate blue tinging the edges of the petals. 



A wealthy merchant of Amsterdam once paid the enor- 

 mous sum of fifteen hundred dollars for a bulb of this 

 wondrous flower. A few days later a vessel arrived in port 

 from the East, bringing him a valuable consignment of mer- 

 chandise. One of the sailors hastened to tell him of its 

 arrival, and as a reward the merchant presented him with a 

 smoked herring. On the merchant's desk lay the Semper 

 Augustus bulb, which next spring was to gladden his heart 

 with its lovely blossom. Not being satisfied with the mer- 

 chant's generosity, the sailor picked up the bulb, thinking it 

 was an onion. In a few minutes the merchant discovered his 

 loss. A hue and cry was raised for the sailor, who mean- 

 while had retired to a quiet spot on the wharf, where he was 

 found sitting on a coil of rope eating his lunch of herring 

 and "onion". He had no idea that the meal he had just 

 eaten was so costly, for he had indeed thought the onion a 

 very poor one; it had no taste. The enraged merchant had 



the poor sailor put into prison, where he remained many 

 months. 



Southey, in his Colloquies on Society, speaks of tulip 



bulbs as being at one time in Holland as costly as jewels or 



