DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF TULIPS. 35 



Funebre, Catalina, Lac, Ponceau tres blanc, Camuse de Craix, Violet 

 Alexander, Lady Crewe, Mentor, Anacreon, Aglaia, Catafalque, rum 

 multis aliis ? I can state from mine own knowledge that bulbs have 

 produced blooms which have taken a first or second prize for four or 

 more following years. As to what he states relative to observations on 

 Strong's King and Polyphemus, I have only to repeat, an inspection 

 of the flowers will justify them. 



So much for his remarks No. 1. Now for attack No. 2. In it he 

 states, " it would be cruel to put down an uninformed man who 

 makes a silly attempt to cobble up something from what he has read." 

 I disdain falsehood, and treat with utter contempt the person who is 

 guilty of it ; I claim credit for stating truth. I have said that every 

 Tulip is described from actual inspection when in bloom, not from 

 reading, and I challenge him to prove a single description false in 

 the whole descriptive catalogue. I suppose he is afraid of " Othello's 

 occupation going," and wishes to bolster up the old system. It will 

 not do ! " Honesty will be found to be the best policy." In No. 3 

 attack, he is still playing upon the same string, and bringing forth 

 the most ridiculous nonsense. He writes " that shape is a mere 

 matter of taste, and scarcely two are of one opinion." Really had I 

 not waded nearly through the chaff in search of wheat I should have 

 thrown my pen down in disgust. Look at Mr. Groom's diagram of 

 a Tulip, and read his description ; it is a master-piece ; and had he 

 given a little better shoulder at the base, which would have made it 

 broader, and a little trifle more in the length of cup, my opinion is, 

 a better model could not be conceived ; it would be like those cele- 

 brated pieces of antique sculpture, exact in all its proportions. What 

 a silly remark comes next from one who pretends to eclipse all 

 writers upon florists' flowers (particularly the Tulip), to state that 

 " the very finest of them are inclined to give out three of the petals, 

 and form a sort of triangular shaped cup instead of a round one." 

 How can these be fine so deficient in the very groundwork of a fine 

 Tulip ? He advocates shape in one place, and then writes that some 

 of the finest are a little triangular, which is the very worst fault a 

 Tulip can have. Shape and bottom, all must admit, are indispensable ; 

 but it so happens that the-e new varieties must be tolerated with all 

 their faults, and the good old ones thrown aside. Look at my de- 

 scription of one of the finest marking flamed byblomcns grown, 



