46 BBECK'S NEW BOOK OF FLOWERS. 



of choice varieties of this flower, which had bloomed in 

 my own garden the previous year, which I knew to be 

 very fine. At the time of their flowering in his garden, 

 he came to me in a great rage, bringing with him a hand- 

 ful of the Tulips, and accused me of selling him a lot of 

 inferior bulbs for the very best. They were indeed inferi- 

 or, except in shape. I examined them, and found the 

 ground color to be a dull brown, with stripes a few shades 

 darker. I could not believe they were identical with 

 those I sold him, but had some suspicions they might be 

 the same, but had not received proper treatment. He in- 

 vited me to visit his garden and judge for myself. The 

 journey of 25 miles I cheerfully undertook, and found to 

 my surprise, that not only my own Tulips, but also those 

 obtained from two other sources, were indeed a sad sight, 

 all pretty much in the same style and worthless. But I 

 was not surprised when the mode of their cultivation had 

 been detailed. He had not only prepared his beds with a 

 large quantity of strong manure, but to cap the climax, 

 he covered the bed in autumn with four inches of tanner's 

 hemlock bark as a protection. The leaching of the hem- 

 lock bark, and heavy manuring, satisfactorily explained 

 the cause of the disaster, not only to myself, but to the 

 gentleman also, when we presented the facts before my 

 friend, Mr. Teschemacker, who affirmed that their treat- 

 ment was sufficient cause of their deterioration. The in- 

 quiry was then made, how the flowers could be brought 

 back to their original beauty. The answer was, that it 

 was doubtful whether that could be done, but it was sug- 

 gested, that the only probable means would be, to form a 

 compost of virgin soil from a pasture without any manure, 

 with sand and lime rubbish. It, however, was not suc- 

 cessful. 



