902 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



for effect. The Parrot Tulips, with curi- 

 ously cut and fringed petals, are often 

 strangely splashed and veined in various 

 colours and are valuable for their bright 

 display. 



Tulips are easily grown in the rich soil 

 of old gardens, but where the land is cold 

 and strff or not well worked, they have a 

 tendency to die out. They may be planted 

 from October to the middle of November, 

 and the old TuUp growers used to put a 

 little sand at the base of each bulb, but 

 this is not essential. It is well to lift the 

 bulbs every two or three years, or they 

 become crowded and give small flowers. 

 When the old flower stems are turning 

 yellow, the bulbs may be taken up, dried, 

 and stored till planting time or replanted 

 at once if convenient, as nothing is gained 

 by keeping them out of the ground. Most 

 kinds increase by offsets, but some species 

 rarely or never increase in this way, and 

 recourse must be had to seed, sown when 

 ripe to germinate the following spring, but 

 the bulbs do not attain their full size for 

 six or seven years. Beds of Tulips may 

 be carpeted with small tufted or creeping 

 plants, of which there are many suited 

 for the purpose. The White Rock Cress 

 {Arabi's aibida) and its variegated form, 

 Aubretias, Hepaticas, Primroses, Cow- 

 slips, Silenc pcjidula., Pansies and Violets, 

 Saxifrages, Iberis corifolia, Ajuga reptaixs 

 rubra., and many others make excellent 

 carpets. 



Among the wild Tulips there are beau- 

 tiful kinds distinct from the garden 

 varieties ; the larger kinds, noble flowers 

 for free planting, and the smaller sorts 

 gems of beauty for the rock-garden or in 

 beds and borders of choice bulbs. 



T. ACUMINATA is curious, but its petals too 

 long and thin to create a display. 



T. Alberti, from Turkestan, is rather low- 

 growing, with undulated leaves of a glaucous 

 green colour trailing on the ground; the flowers 

 red, somewhat resembling those of T. Greigi 

 in shape, Init the petals are marked at the base 

 with a blotch of yellow margined with black. 

 T. AUSTRAI.IS is variable in colour, but 

 always pleasing, allied to T. sylvesiris but less 

 robust, whilst the flower is more funnel-shaped 

 and flu.shed on the outside with red. Syn., T. 

 Celsiana. 



T. Ratalini is a small kind seldom exceed- 

 ing 4 in. in height, with trailing leaves, and 

 rather large flowers (nearly 3 in. in length) of 

 a pale yellow colour. 



T. BiFi.ORA, Caucasus. A species known 

 long ago, and not very striking with its small 

 pale yellow flowers, which, however, are borne 

 in a cluster of three or four at the top of the 

 flower-stem instead of being solitary, as in 

 most other Tulips. 



T. Clusiana, the dainty Lady Tulip, came 

 from the Mediterranean region as long ago as 

 1636, has small flowers, and is not more than 

 I ft. or so in height. The flowers are white, 

 with a flush of rose on the outer surface, and 

 purplish-black at the base. T. stellata is a 

 near ally. It requires a deep vegetable soil 

 and warm sheltered position. 



T. CONCINNA.— A dainty late-flowering 

 species from Cilicia, with rich red flowers 2 ins. 

 across, marked with bold black spots outlined 

 in yellow, at the base of each segnient. 



T. DASYTEMON. — A fine new species, very 

 distinct in habit and flower. In height it 

 grows about 6 in., with from four to seven 

 flowers on a stem ; in colour, these are yellow 

 edged white. 



T. DiDlERl, a May flowering kind from the 

 Alps, grows tall, and has large bright red 

 flowers with black blotches inside at the base. 

 A yellow variety named Billetiana is equally 

 handsome. 



T. EiCHLERl, a native of Georgia, is 

 another fine species with large leaves and 

 broad flowers of an intense scarlet-red colour, 

 the petals roundish in shape, having at the base 

 a black blotch margined with yellow. 



T. ELEGANS, a graceful bright-coloured 

 kind, opens late in April, the flowers bright red 

 with yellow eye, the petals long, tapering to a 

 point. 



T. FLAVA, with bright yellow petals, rather 

 spoiled by a bar of green down the centre ; its 

 flowers however continue quite a fortnight after 

 those of all other Tulips are past. 



T. FRAGRANS is a doubtful species, and 

 given in some books as a synonym of 7". sylves- 

 iris, our wild tulip, from which it differs in its 

 fragrance. In habit and size of its pretty 

 yellow flowers it is the same. It needs a 

 warm place, perishing during the winter unless 

 well cared for. 



T. FULGENS, a form of T. Gesueriana, 

 sharing the graceful character of the race, the 

 flowers rich crimson, borne on tall stems. 



T. GALATIC.4 is a dwarf Tulip, rarely reach- 

 ing 9 ins. high, and quite unlike other kinds in 

 its very broad leaves and large cone-shaped 

 flowers of pale yellow, flaked with green at the 

 base on the inside, and touched with olive- 

 green on the outside of each petal. 



T. Gesneriana.— This the noblest of all 

 Tulips, the parent of the large late-flowering 

 race, should be in every garden, planted in 

 bold groups or broad masses. In Sussex I 

 have seen charming effects secured by planting 

 in quantity. In one case a large oval Erica 

 bed had been thickly planted with some few 

 hundreds of this kind, and formed a solid 

 shield-like mass of colour, more brilliant than 

 a soldier's coat, and very picturesque seen 

 through the soft grey trunks of Scotch Fir 

 trees. 



In another instance the bulbs had been 

 planted in a solid, but irregular line, on a dry, 

 warm hedge-bank of turfy loam, and just 

 through and above the great crimson blooms 

 the common (Quince had thrust its soft leafy 



