142 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



these seeds of promise, and sell to each other the third 

 quarter or half of the bulb productions, which, however, 

 should not be parted with unless there are a certain number 

 of young bulbs to be divided. The prices they pay for these in- 

 valuable seedlings would astonish an amateur. They enhance 

 the value of the bulb, for which the fixed price is some- 

 times above 1000 florins. Some are worth as much again. 

 Growers usually keep notes of the origin and date of bulbs. 



Some hundred years ago double hyacinths were thought 

 little of; they were almost unknown. Swertius, in 1620, 

 gives a list of about forty kinds of hyacinths ; none of them 

 were double. The gardens of George Voorhelm belonged 

 also to his grandfather, who had already tried raising 

 hyacinths from seed, and whenever he made a Conquest, 

 Pierre Voorhelm would reject any which seemed out of the 

 ordinary, or out of proportion to the rest of his flowers, for 

 in those days they took a pride in the formal and regular 

 arrangements of their flower-beds. He took care, especially, 

 to destroy double hyacinths when they appeared, without 

 waiting to see what they might become if they were 

 allowed to develop. He was only anxious to keep flowers 

 which promised seed. It is certain that double flowers have 

 not a seed-bearing quality ; they are not formed for maturing 

 the seed enclosed in the ovary, so that any flower without 

 this particular good quality did not fail to be rejected. No 

 one took the least pleasure in the idea of a double hyacinth ; 

 it was rather regarded as a monster (or freak of nature), just 

 as at the present day nobody cares for a double tulip. 



Pierre Voorhelm fell ill, and being quite unable to visit 

 or attend to his plants until the hyacinth season was nearly 

 over, he happened then to see a double hyacinth (the kind 

 is now lost) which had been forgotten, and had not been 

 thrown away as usual ; it was very small, and he only liked 

 it because it seemed to match very well with the single ones 



