TULIPA. 
399 
TULIP-TREE. 
and larger flowers ; and Flamands, 
which have a white ground and 
broad dark red stripes. ‘The Dutch 
have also a kind which they call 
the Incomparable Verport, which is 
white, feathered with bright shining 
brown. All florists’ Tulips ought 
to have cup-shaped flowers, round 
at the base; the ground colour in-| 
side the flower ought to be quite 
clear and bright in the centre ; and 
all the marks ought to appear sharp- 
ly cut and distinct. © 
The culture of the Tulip as a 
florist’s flower, requires constant at- 
tention. A bed about four feet 
wide, and of any convenient length, 
should be dug out to the depth of 
two feet, and’a stratum of fresh 
turfy loam should be laid, and on 
this there should be a layer of rotien 
cowdung, and on that a layer of 
loam mixed with an equal quantity 
of sand. The surface of the bed 
should be slightly raised in the 
middle, and the tallest Tulips should 
be planted along it; the lower- 
growing ones being ranged on each 
side, so as to make the flowers form 
a gentle curve to the sides of the 
bed. The Tulips should be seven 
inches apart every way ; and should 
be planted two or three inches deep ; 
and the bed should be protected by 
half-hoops placed over it at regular 
distances, over which mats should 
be strained; the covering being so 
contrived as tc be removed or opened 
at pleasure. When the Tulips are 
nearly arrived at their full height, 
the hoops and mats should be re- 
moved, and a path being made 
round the bed, a canvass awning, 
supported on a wooden frame, should 
be subs d. When the plants 
have done flowering, the leaves 
should be suffered to remain on till 
they turn brown, in order that they 
may assist in perfecting the new 
bulb, which is formed every year in 
lieu of the old one, which gradually 
wastes away. The bulb - tanica- 
ro ie 
a a 
ted, that is, it consists of several 
coats or tunics laid over one an- 
other (see fig 60). When the 
Fig. 60.—Tulip Bulb. 
leaves are withered, the bulbs are 
taken up and laid on shelves todry , 
after which the leaves, if any re- 
main on, are removed, and the 
fibrous roots, which will have wither- 
ed up, are rubbed off, and the bulbs 
are put into a box, divided into 
compartments, so as to keep the 
nained sorts apart till the season for 
replanting, which is the last week 
in October or the first,in November. 
A fresh bed show.’ be made for 
Tulips every year, or the soil of the 
old bed should be changed ; as the 
exudations from Tulips poison the 
ground for other plants of the same 
kind, though they are suitable for 
other crops. The usual rotation in 
Holland is, Tulips, Polyanthus- 
narcissus, Crocuses, and Hyacinths. 
Mr. Groom, of Walworth, is the 
principal Tulip grower in the neigh- 
bourhood of London; and he has 
an exhibition of them every year 
in May. 
Tuie-TREE. — See Lririope'n 
DRON. 
