14 GARDEN AND FARM TOPICS. 



received, for more than two hundred years, all the care 

 and attention that could possibly be bestowed on a plant, 

 not only by the Dutch florists, but by nearly every 

 skilled gardener throughout the Old World. 



Notwithstanding the " mania " has safely passed over, 

 one of the Haarlem florists this season (1883) offered 

 two thousand varieties. To select from a list so large 

 with a view of pleasing, or of securing the most desirable, 

 would be to play a game of chance. Nearly every color 

 and shade, except black, is represented, either alone or 

 mixed, striped or shaded ; in fact, every possible com- 

 bination of color may be obtained. Double Tulips are 

 almost as common as the single, many of them very 

 showy and desirable. But, like all others who have made 

 a specialty of the Tulip, we could never admire the 

 double as much as the single varieties. Late flowering 

 or Show Tulips have been grown from seed by millions, 

 the result of which has been the acquisition of many 

 superb varieties. 



There is a singularity in Tulips which belongs to no 

 other flower. The seedlings generally, when they first 

 bloom, produce flowers without any stripes or markings, 

 but with a yellow base, the upright portion of the petals 

 being self-colored, brown, red, purple, scarlet, or rose. 

 In this state, when they have been grown for years with- 

 out variation, they are called Breeders or Mother Tulips. 

 These are planted every year until they break into 

 stripes, when, if the markings are fine, or different from 

 any known, they are named. Each person who has 

 "broken " one claims and has a perfect right to give it a 

 name ; but much confusion naturally exists, because of 

 the fact that different names have been given to those 

 that have broken almost exactly alike. In a bed of a 

 thousand seedlings, it is not probable that any two will 



