3(ournal 

 of ti^e 



Horttmllural ^ocietj of jBteto ©orfe 



INCORPORATED I902 



Vol II No 14 'ssued AIirillST IQ17 Free to members 



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OBSERVATIONS ON TULIPS 



I. Blind Tulips 



The term " blind " is quite generally and popularly applied to 

 tulip plants that do not produce flowers but which have been 

 grown from bulbs of such size that flowers would be expected. 

 In such plants there is at least some development of the flower 

 stalk and the leaves formed are attached directly to this stalk. 



In this sense blind tulips are quite distinct from plants having 

 a scale leaf only, as is most common of plants grown from bulbs 

 of small size. This distinction is well illustrated in Nos. 3 and 4 

 of Plate 38. The plant shown in No. 3 had a flower stalk bearing 

 three leaves, but the uppermost portion of the stem with the flower 

 bud failed to develop and is represented by a withered dead stub. 

 The tulip w^as blind. In No. 4 no flower stem developed and the 

 leaf formed was an extension of a bulb scale ; growing points of 

 the flower stems had remained in a rudimentary condition and 

 were still enclosed in the bulb. 



■ Three stages or degrees of blindness are illustrated in Plate 37. 

 In No. I four stem leaves were formed and only the part of the 

 flower stalk above the leaves was aborted. In No. 2 only two 

 stem leaves were formed ; the dead portion here included some 

 of the leaves. In No. 3 all the leaves but the lowest were in- 

 cluded in the dead portion. In all three plants the lower part of 

 the stem was present and in all three the shrivelled dead apex was 

 in evidence as shown. The occurrence of such blind tulips is 



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