34 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF TULITS. 



yellow, which previously appeared as the ground colour, is vanished 

 to the edge of the petals, and the ground colour is left a dirty white 

 and the inside yellow ; and the same may be said of the tri-coloured 

 flowers. Allow me also to observe as a writer upon the Tulip, that 

 I have no occasion to pay for the services of a would-be judge to 

 rectify my bed. No one but the said discarded F. H. S. has yet dis- 

 approved of the descriptive catalogue in any particular, but all appear 

 highly pleased, so much so, that I have been often and urgently 

 requested to publish them in a pocket form, that an amateur may no 

 longer be victimised, as many have been, but can at once select 

 those that are worth a place in any collection. The day of deception 

 in this matter is over, and the northern florists are awake to the few 

 pairs more of that splendid Don John, and a few roots of those 

 splendid takes in ; we want a pennyworth for our penny, not things 

 deficient in every good point. 



After these preliminary observations, I proceed to notice the cri- 

 tique upon the article in question. He states in the onset that he is 

 informed that there is a writer in the north enlightening the fancy 

 with a descriptive catalogue of Tulips, and that only one thing pre- 

 vents it from being useful, "that the descriptions are not true ones,*" 

 and immediately afterwards states, that he should not have noticed 

 it had not Polyphemus and Strong's King been attacked, which led 

 him to look at some others. Here shows the veracity of the writer, 

 who sets out with a falsehood which would at once convince any 

 candid reader of the utter worthlessness of his remarks. Why, in 

 common sense, as the descriptions are all so false, why not single out 

 others besides as specimens ? The reason is obvious ; he could not. 

 They are too faithful for any who have been for years selling things 

 utterly worthless, with a very different representation. The writer, 

 after this parade of words, proceeds to write the vilest nonsense that 

 ever was written by any one professing to be a Tulip grower. " The 

 Tulip is, without exception" (he says), " the most uncertain of all 

 florists' flowers, the same bulb will never bloom twice alike" (I sup- 

 pose he means that it never will bloom fine for two years together). 

 What ridiculous stuff! Are there no steady Tulips? Where then are 

 your Comte de Vergennes, Bienfait, Buckley's Beauty, Shakspeare, 

 Polyphemus, Ambassador, Rowbottom's Incomparable, Lewold, 

 Bacchus, Charles X., Surpasse Catafalque, Heroine, David, Pompe 



