HARDY BULBOUS FLOWERS. 45 



The old garden Tulip, a favourite for generations, grown in the 

 so-called florist varieties, and the source once of severe mania, is but 



one of a large number of wild Tulipa, many of 

 Tulips. which have come to us of late years from Central 



Asia. The old Tulips are the forms of an Italian 

 species (T. Gesneriana), and these varieties are worthy of all the 

 attention they ever had ; but the wild form is as good as any of its 

 varieties for splendid effect, and a selection should be made of its 

 simpler colours, including a good white and yellow. The bedding 

 Tulips, which are earlier in blooming, are forms of T. scabriscapa, and 

 though useful, are not nearly so valuable for their effect as the late 

 tulips. The new species coming from Central Asia and other lands 

 promise to be very valuable, too, for their effect, though our climate 

 may not suit all of them, as it does the fine hardy Gesneriana. The 

 colour of these Tulips is too fine to be missed, and, as the bloom is too 

 short-lived to give beds to them, the best way is to plant them in 

 borders : when scarce, in the nursery, when plentiful, in the wild 

 garden. I put some in new hedgerow banks a few years ago, and 

 also the Wood Tulip in a meadow regularly mown, and now have a 

 splendid bloom every spring. As wild Tulips abound in the south 

 of Europe travellers might often get many roots which could be 

 tried in this and other ways. Some of the bedding Tulips have 

 very ugly slaty colours, and there is much waste in planting them. 

 The Dutch bulb raisers care more for variety than beauty of colour, 

 but the aim in our gardens should be to get more of the fine simple 

 colours, and the wild kinds planted so far as we may in effective ways; 

 a few trials in that way will show that it is a much more effective 

 one than setting out the plants in tile or other patterns. The later 

 these wild Tulips come into bloom the better, as it brings their 

 nobler colour in when the harsh changes of the spring are nearly 

 over, and in the north they will come in with the early summer days. 

 These ideas of the more picturesque planting of the hardier Tulips 

 need not take from the lover of the old florist kinds his Tulip garden, 

 which was very charming with its long beds of good soil, and at its 

 best in some sheltered hedged in or walled garden. 



If the Crocus has any fault it is courage in coming so early that 

 it has to face every trouble of the spring, and green winters induce it 



to open too early. Yet what promise it brings us 

 Crocus. of the many-blossomed spring in border and in 



lawn ; for, in addition to the old and good way in 

 garden borders, the Crocus, at least all the forms and series and the 

 hardy and vigorous European kinds, is easily naturalised in lawns 

 or meadow turf, and others even under Beech trees, as in Crowsley 

 Park. As regards this question, it should be remembered that the 



