292 ILLUSTRATIONS. 



for these flowers," which would not have been the case had they been 

 growing wild in that country. Busbequius, going to France, left his 

 Tulip bulbs under the care of Clusius, the celebrated botanist of Arras, 

 who, thinking them old and withered, committed them to the rubbish- 

 heap ; but to his astonishment they produced a great variety of flowers. 

 Clusius afterward gave more than a hundred of the bulbs to an apothe- 

 cary at Vienna to be preserved in sugar, as is done with the roots of 

 the Orchis, in order to ascertain whether they had not the same pro- 

 perties. In 1562, a merchant of Antwerp had a cargo of Tulip bulbs ; 

 and taking them for a sort of onion, ordered some to be roasted under 

 embers, and ate them with oil and vinegar like common onious ; the 

 rest he set in the garden among the cabbages. 



It is related that a sailor having taken some goods to a Dutch mer- 

 chant, had a herring given him for breakfast ; but seeing what he 

 supposed a kind of onions lying on the counter, the tar took up a 

 handful and ate with his dried fish, this sauce being of immense value. 



Conrad Gesner, who has been denominated the Pliny of Germany, 

 tells us that he first saw the Tulip in the year 1559, in the garden of 

 John Henry Harwart, at Augsburg. Gesner had it figured, and pub- 

 lished observations upon it in his works ; and in consequence the 

 common Tulip has very properly been named Tulipa Gesneriana. 



Gerard fixes the introduction of the Tulip into England in 1577; 

 and it was cultivated in his garden and those of his friends, Master 

 Garth and Master James Garret. He states, " We have one of great 

 beautie, and very much desired of all, with white flowers, dasht on the 

 back side with a light wash of watchet colour. There is also another 

 of a snow while colour, the edges slightly washt over with a little of 

 what we call blush colour. We have another like the former, saving 

 that this flower is of a straw colour." 



During the sixteenth century the rage for flowers, especially the 

 Tulip, was carried to great excess in Holland and France, and the 

 growth and sale of Tulips became a trade of importance, and finally 

 became a gambling system. In 1636, the spirit of floral gambling was 

 carried to such excess at Haarlem, that during three years it yielded to 

 that city a sum of ten millions sterling. Betting to a ruinous amount 

 was often made respecting the eventual superiority of promising seed- 

 lino- bulbs, and for the possessions of breeders of high merit, from which 

 fine seedlings might be expected. A beautiful Tulip, named Viceroy, 

 ■was sold for the following articles i — Four fat oxen, twelve fat sheep, 

 eight fat swine, two lasts of wheat, four lasts of rye, two hogsheads of 

 wine, four tons of beer, two tons of butter, one thousand ptiunds of 

 cheese, one complete bed, one suit of clothes, and one silver beaker : 

 the value of which was 460/. Soon after another was sold, named 

 Semper Augustus, for 846/., a beautiful new carriage, and two horses 

 with harness. Another of this variety was sold for 2,520/. Soon 

 afterwards another superior flower was introduced to notice, and pur- 

 chased for twelve acres of land and 5,000/. When a bidder could not 

 be found to offer a sum equal to the supposed merits of a fine flower of 

 this latter recorded variety, it was then disposed of by lottery or raffle. 

 We are told of a person who possessed a very fine Tulip ; but finding 



