THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



TULIPA. 901 



brilliant colour. We need to plant the 

 best kinds in quantity, for exquisite as 

 the striped or flaked Tulip may be, it is 

 the self-colours that give the best effect. 

 Tulips have been so long grown and 

 are so variable in character that con- 

 siderable confusion exists among them. 

 The popular garden forms may, broadly 

 speaking, be separated into two classes, 

 early and late flowering. T. suaveolens 

 from Southern Russia is now regarded 

 as the type of the numerous early- 



have been grown by florists, who have 

 raised numerous varieties, which form an 

 enormous class divided into four sections 

 — viz. breeders or self-flowers, bizarres, 

 bybloemens, and roses. When a seed- 

 ling flowers for the first time, it is 

 usually a self, and in a few years (but 

 occasionally not until thirty years) it 

 will break into the flamed or feathered 

 state. A feathered Tulip has the colour 

 finely pencilled round the margin of the 

 petals, the base of the flower being pure, 



Old garden Tulips. 



flowering varieties, of which Due van 

 Thol is a familiar example ; but these, 

 though commonly planted, are of less 

 \alue for the garden than the later forms 1 

 which open in May. These have all come I 

 from T. GesneriMia, and whilst possess- | 

 ing infinite variety of colour, all have the 

 fine form and stately character of the 

 parent. These late Tulips following the 

 Daffodils are precious garden flowers of 

 easy culture, still less grown than they 

 should be. For about three centuries they 



and in a flamed flower stripes of colour 

 descend from the top of the petals to- 

 wards the base. In the bizarres the 

 colours are red, brownish-red, chestnut, 

 and maroon, the base being clear yellow ; 

 in the bybloemens the colours are black 

 and various shades of purple, the base 

 being white ; and in the roses, rose of 

 various shades and also deep red or 

 scarlet, the base being white again. Of 

 these classes the late-flowering self- 

 coloured "breeders" are the best of all 



