TULIP, 283 
It seems to be the more general opinion thai alt 
flowers, in their natural state, are undeveloped, that 
they require the florist’s cunning hand to become per- 
fect, and that some one, with authority to speak, must 
say what constitutes the perfect flower, and when a 
given form has reached that state. We wish to dissent 
from that view most emphatically. While we are willing 
to admit that certain forms and colors have been mate- 
" rially developed by the florists’ skill, we assert, without 
fear of contradiction, that no floral form is more perfect, 
no colors more intense or better defined, than the orig- 
inal forms possessed, and that all our skill in cultivation 
can only restore to the flower the properties that have 
been lost, in the long ages when there was no kindly 
hand to assist in its struggles with stronger forms, to 
gain a supremacy. Cultivation will enable the flower, 
or the plant upon which it grows, to reach that perfec- 
tion which its creation entailed ; it can do no more. 
The cultivation of the Tulip has restored its original 
size and strength; aided by cross-fertilization it has 
given new forms, or shapes of flower, a marked change 
in colors, or in their distribution, and has been the 
means of developing that taste and love for the beautiful 
in the flower that keeps apace with the intelligence and 
refinement of the age. Our perfected single Tulips are 
simply restored natural forms. 
Garden or Show Tulips.—The more popular 
Tulips for the garden are what are usually known as 
Late Flowering Tulips, single forms; these are divided 
into several distinct classes, all of which had their origin 
in Tulipa Gesneriana, a native of the Levant, and com- 
mon in Syria and Persia. It was brought to Europe 
from Persia in 1559, and was cultivated at Constan- 
tinople. From this city it found its way over Europe, 
under the name of the Turkish Tulip; and it was first 
botanically described by Gesner, a Swiss botanist resid- 
