FLORICULTURAL GLEANINGS. 



77 



But what are the properties of a first-rate Tulip ? Methinks I 

 hear you now saying, Have patience, gentle reader, and we will now 

 inquire. There are various opinions on this subject; and, as " A Star 

 in the North " has twice of late repeated his opinion, that the proper 

 form for the Tulip is " a semi-oblate spheroid," it is highly necessary 

 to inquire into the correctness of his standard. What, then, is " a 

 semi-oblate spheroid ? " a spheroid is a solid formed by the revo- 

 lution of an ellipse about one of its diameters, and when this revolu- 

 tion is made about the conjugate diameter it is called an oblate sphe- 

 roid. If the conjugate and transverse diameters.be to each other in 

 the proportion of three to four inches, then the breadth of a Tulip 

 cup, in the form of a " semi-oblate spheroid," would be four inches, 

 while its depth would be one inch and a half. Should the transverse 

 diameter be four inches, and the conjugate only two inches, then the 

 breadth of the cup would remain four, while the depth would be 

 only one inch, which, in my opinion, would be too near an approach 

 to a horizontal plane to have any resemblance to a fine cup or 

 beautiful goblet, to which the Tulip cup has often been compared. 

 As the lengths of the diameters assimilate to each other, the spheroid 

 approaches a globe, and when the two diameters become equal the 

 two 'solids are identical; so that on reconsidering the subject, the 

 " Star in the North " will perceive that he has given his definition of 

 a fine Tulip in terms totally indefinite ! What proportion he would 

 therefore have to exist between the diameter of his standard cup and 

 its depth we are totally at a loss to know, as a semi-oblate spheroid, 

 whose relative dimensions are not given, may in fact be little thicker 

 at its polar diameter than a line; or it may, at its maximum, become 

 a complete hemisphere. It may, in fact, be as variable as the shades 

 of the leaves in an autumnal forest, and the propriety of such a 

 fctandard is therefore quite out of the question. 



Having thus, I trust, sufficiently shown that the "semi-oblate 

 spheroid " is too variable a standard to be worthy of adoption, let us 

 now inquire what the most perfect shape would be for the cup of the 

 Tulip. I think no one that is unprejudiced would disagree with 

 Mr. Glenny on this point— that the Tulip cup should be some part of 

 a hollow sphere, as that is a shape which remains unchangeable, 

 although there may be many opinions regarding the depth which the 

 cup ought to possess. Mr. G. advocates the third or the half of a 



