102 REMARKS ON, WHAT IS A FLAWED TULIP? 



the finest Tulips in cultivation on account of the beam, or the mother 

 colour, whichever you may be pleased to term it? What are Pan- 

 dora, Thalia, Reine de Sheba alias Mentor, Ponceau ties blanc alias 

 Madame Catalina, Aglaia, Bijou des Amateurs, Bacchus, Cerise a 

 belle Forme, Donzelli, Marcellus, Iago, Holmes's King, Polyphemus, 

 Camarine, &c? Further, what says the Editor of the "Florist's 

 and Amateur's Annual?" In his properties of the Tulip he divides 

 them into six parts, and in his sixth section of the properties, he 

 comes to the marking, and he thus writes: — " The marking of the 

 petals regular and uniform, whether it be a broad or narrow feather 

 round the edges of the petals which are exposed, or a flame up the 

 centre, and branching off, and though very rarely uniform in this 

 respect, the nearer approach the better. So much in regard to the 

 properties for showing." But the writer must have forgot this pub- 

 lished opinion, when so lately as the 29th of June he says, " No 

 flower can be good for show if it has the breeder colour in it ;" and 

 on the 6th July he says, " A Tulip should not have any of the 

 breeder colour in it." I can only account for this on the following 

 grounds, namely : — The question has not been fairly stated to him. 

 If it was a feathered variety, and had breeder colour in it, I agree 

 with him that it ought to disqualify a pan, providing the other pan 

 or pans have not the same glaring fault. There has never been but 

 one instance, I believe, of the beam and feathering being of the same 

 colour ; but I must admit that the nearer the approach to the colour 

 of the feathering so much the better. A Tulip in the north, if the 

 beam is very pale, is not considered of so much value as one very 

 dark. Aglaia, although a pretty variety, is very defective in the 

 beam. In some instances it is uncommonly pale, and at other times 

 the colour is tolerable. The same may be said of many others. If 

 the taste of the York florists is correct, then it will be a mere mockery 

 to offer prizes for flamed Tulips, if those only which are what arc 

 termed, and correctly so, neither feathered nor flamed, are to be 

 classed as such. I have a work before me upwards of 100 years 

 old, written by the celebrated Dutch florist, Nicholas Van Kampen, 

 and the properties he lays down are in accordance with what has 

 been previously expressed. The authorities quoted, however, are 

 sufficient to satisfy any Tulip-grower, they being, as they are, the 

 opinions of the best florists in the country ; and I trust that the pro 



