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Tl'ISCON TULIP-TREE. 



TUISCON. According to Tacitus, the Ger- 

 mans, in their songs, gave this name to the founder 

 of their nation. Thuisco or Tuisco is probably the 

 adjective of Theut or Teat; hence theutisch, teutsch. 

 (The Germans call themselves Teutsche or Deutsche, 

 and their country Teutschland or Deutschland.) 

 Thfut signifies something original, independent, e. g. 

 earth, nation, father and lord. From Theut comes 

 Teutones, the people of Theut ; hence also lingua 

 Theut isca, Theodisc, Teutonic, Theutish, Teutsch 

 (called, in a great part of Westphalia, Dusk}. In 

 this we recognise the Thuisco of Tacitus (Germ. 

 2). The word Deutsch first appears in a document 

 of the year 813 ; and the first king, who was called 

 Koniij der Deutschen, rex Teutonicorum, was Otho 

 the Great. (See German Language.) In the 

 northern mythology, Thuiscon, Tuiscuti, Taut, Tot, 

 T\eot, Tuu, &c., is a god, from whom the Gauls 

 ami Germans believed themselves descended. Thu- 

 iscon, with the Earth (Artha or Hertha), gave birth 

 to men; hence called Teutones. But only the in- 

 habitants of the Scandinavian islands, between the 

 extreme coasts of Southern Scandinavia and the 

 Cimbric Chersonesus, were properly called Teu- 

 tones. The ancient Germans revered Tuiscon as a 

 man with a gray beard, clad in the skin of an animal, 

 holding a sceptre in his right hand, and stretching 

 out the left with extended fingers. According to 

 Julius Caesar, they offered to him human sacrifices. 

 The name of Tuesday has been derived from the 

 god. 



TULA ; a town of Russia, capital of a govern- 

 ment of the same name on the Upha; 112 miles 

 south of Moscow ; Ion. 37 2' E.; lat. 54 12' N.; 

 population, 38,000. It contains several seminaries, 

 but is chiefly distinguished for its manufactures of 

 hardware, on which account it is styled the Shef- 

 field of Russia. It has a cannon foundry, and a 

 manufactory of arms for government, as muskets, 

 bayonets, swords, &c. ; besides two iron founderies, 

 and 600 shops of smiths and others for making fire- 

 arms and cutlery for private use. The ore is sup- 

 plied In abundance from the vicinity: but the manu- 

 facture is inferior to that of England. 



TULIP (tulipa} ; a genus of plants belonging to 

 the liliacece, containing about a dozen species, 

 mostly natives of Europe, or of the neighbouring 

 parts of Asia. Their roots are bulbous; the leaves 

 few in number, and disposed about the base of the 

 stem ; the latter simple, and usually terminated by 

 a large solitary flower. The calyx is wanting; the 

 corolla composed of six petals, and the stamens six 

 in number. The most noted species is the common 

 garden tulip(jT. yesneriana), which has received its 

 name from the celebrated Conrade Gesner, to whom 

 we owe its introduction into the European gardens. 

 It was brought, originally, from the Levant ; and 

 Gesner first discovered it in 1559, at Augsburg, in 

 the garden of an amateur, who had received it from 

 Constantinople or Cappadocia. The stem is about 

 a foot or eighteen inches high, provided at the base 

 with three or four lanceolate, glaucous leaves. In 

 the wild plant, the colour of the flowers is uni- 

 form, often yellow or reddish, sometimes brownish ; 

 but cultivation has modified them in a thousand 

 ways, and produced an immense number of varieties. 

 The tulip has always been a favourite plant with 

 the Belgians and Dutch; and, about a century after 

 its introduction, the mania prevailed to such an ex- 

 tent in these countries that more than two thousand 

 dollars were often given for a single root in those 

 days an immense sum. It is still extensively cul- 



tivated in Holland, from which all Europe is sup- 

 plied with bulbs ; and it is said that nothing tan 

 equal the magnificence of the gardens in that coun- 

 try, at the time when they are covered with innu- 

 merable varieties of these flowers. These varieties 

 are often disposed in a regular figure, according to 

 their size and the different colours. In raising 

 tulips from the seed, florists pursue a mode in MMIH 

 respects the reverse of that practised with other 

 slants. Instead of saving the seed from the finest 

 variegated tulips, they prefer unbroken flowers for 

 jreeders, selecting such as have tall, strong stems, 

 with large, well-formed cups, clear in the bottom. 

 Plants raised from the seed of the finer variegated 

 sorts form poor, weak breeders, of no value. The 

 seed is sown on fine, light soil, thinly covered, and 

 protected and shaded by a frame. At the end of 

 the second year, the bulbs are taken up, and re- 

 planted three inches apart ; and again at the end of 

 the fourth year. Some will bloom the fourth year, 

 most the fifth, and all the seventh year. 



TULIP-TREE (lyriodendron tulipifera}; one of 

 the most remarkable productions of the North 

 American forest. Among deciduous trees, it is 

 second in size only to the button-wood; and the 

 fine form of the trunk, the beauty and singularity 

 of the foliage and flowers, entitle it to rank among 

 the most magnificent vegetables of temperate 

 limates. It is, besides, valuable, from the numer- 

 ous and useful applications of its wood. The tulip- 

 tree is readily recognised by the peculiar truncated 

 leaves. It belongs to the same natural family with 

 the magnolias. The flowers are large and showy, 

 variegated with different colours, among which yel- 

 low predominates, and somewhat resemble those ot 

 the tulip. The fruit is a cone two or three inches 

 in length, composed of a number of long, thin, nar- 

 row scales, attached to a common axis. The 

 leaves are alternate, supported on long foot-stalks, 

 smooth, and of a pleasing green colour. They are 

 divided into three lobes, the middle one of which 

 is truncated, and slightly notched at the summit. 

 In most parts of the United States, this tree is 

 known only by the improper denomination of pop- 

 lar: sometimes it is called white-wood, or canoe- 

 wood; but the more appropriate name is used 

 chiefly in European gardens. It is unknown, in the 

 wild state, east of the Connecticut river, although 

 occurring as far north as latitude 45, at the south- 

 ern extremity of lake Champlain. It is most com- 

 mon, and attains the largest size, in the Middle 

 and especially in the Western States. Its com- 

 parative rareness in the lower parts of the Southern 

 States is owing to the nature of the soil, which is 

 either too arid or too watery. Every where it is 

 less abundant than the oaks, walnuts, ashes and 

 beeches, for it delights only in deep, loamy, and 

 extremely fertile soils, such as are found in the 

 rich alluvial flats which lie along the rivers, and on 

 the borders of the great swamps that are enclosed 

 in the forests. In some parts of the Western 

 States, it constitutes, alone, pretty extensive tracts 

 of the forest, and here attains its largest dimensions : 

 stocks have been measured more than twenty feet 

 in circumference, and whose height was estimated 

 at from 120 to 140 feet ; and sometimes the trunk 

 is perfectly straight, and uniform in diameter, for 

 more than' forty feet. The heart, or perfect wood, 

 is yellow, approaching to a lemon colour, and the 

 sap white. Though classed among the light woods, 

 it is much heavier than the poplars : the grain is 

 equally fine, and more compact: it is easily 



