1990 



TULIPA scabriscapa. 



Rough-stemmed Tulip. 



HEXANDRIA MOKOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Liliace^. 



TULIPA. Suprd, vol. 2.fol. 127. 



T. scabriscapa ; bulbo solido prolifero tunica castanea Ijevi obtecto ; scapo pu- 

 bescente scabro, foliis glaucescentibus flaccidis subundulatis, sepalis acumi- 

 natis, germine prismatico-triangulari stigmate plus minusve angustiore. 

 Strangways in lilt. 



Like many other garden flowers, the Tulip has in its 

 cultivated state assumed appearances so unlike what are 

 proper to it when wild, that it is only after long and patient 

 investigation that the garden varieties can be referred to 

 their original species. Mr. Strangways' residence at Flo- 

 rence, and the enquiries he was able to institute into this 

 subject, have enabled him to investigate the genus success- 

 fully, and I am extremely indebted to him for the following 

 interesting memoranda, drawn up with reference to the four 

 Tulips represented in the annexed plate, from specimens 

 supplied out of the garden at Abbotsbury. 



" This name {T. scabriscapa) would unite four different varieties of tulip, 

 found wild near Florence, which do not appear to differ specifically one from the 

 other, while they agree in sever-il characters, the most remarkable as well as the 

 most constant of which (in the wild plants) is the roughness of the stalk. 

 They were first noticed, though under a different arrangement, by M. Reboul, a 

 French gentleman residing at Florence, to whom, however, only two varieties 

 seem to have been known, viz. Nos. 3 & 2. 



No. 4. T. scabrisc. var. prumdina, is that which may be taken as the t3'pe 

 of the species, both as being most distinct in colour and character from all the 

 other wild Tulips with which Tuscany abounds ; and as being the least variable 

 of the four varieties here represented. Indeed the only frequent variation observ- 

 able in it, is that the bases of all the petals, interiorly, are sometimes marked 

 with a dusky spot, which at other times is hyaline or smooth and semitransparent ; 

 the same variation of colour extends also to the filaments and anthers, and, 

 rarely, to the petals. T. sc. primulina was first noticed by Viscountess Hawarden 

 in some vineyards on the slope of the hill under the Church of S. Miniato, at a 

 short distance from Florence ; it has since been found abundantly higher up the 

 same valley. It has been introduced into some English gardens under the name 

 of Lady Hawardeii's Tulip. 



No. 3. T. scabrisc. var. strangulata. This, in red, is nearly as invariable 

 as primulina in yellow ; nevertheless it has sometimes a few yellow specks 

 which serve to unite it with No. 1. It was named strangulata by M. Reboul, 

 from the character of the unexpanded flower, in which the tips of the petals cross 

 each other, as if a ligature had been applied just below. He found it first at 

 8*. Margherita, about three miles from Florence, on the south, and afterwards in 

 the same valley with No. 4. Its colour is a remarkably brilliant crimson, each 

 petal having a black spot, forming an eye round the germen, not unlike that of 



* See folio 1419. 



