Tulips 



but sometimes many more, then a few bulbs of the stock 

 are liable to suddenly change (" break " is the technical 

 term for it), and the old ground-colour then appears as 

 stripes on whichever colour, white or yellow, was most 

 prevalent in the eye or base of the self-coloured Breeder. 

 Now look at the next row ; it is labelled Annie McGregor 

 Rose fld., and you will see that though exactly similar in 

 shape and size, and with the*same white eye, this form is 

 practically a white Tulip with finely-pencilled, rose-coloured 

 featherings round the edges of the segments, and up the 

 centre of each there is a broad band, called a flame, of the 

 same rose shade. This is the broken form of the same 

 Tulip, Annie McGregor, and would be shown in the class 

 for Flamed Roses : now you know what fld. means. The 

 next row is labelled similarly, but has " fr. " instead of " fld." 

 at the end, and you can see at a glance that the flowers are 

 much the same as the last, but the segments are pure white 

 except for the featherings of rose-colour round their edges, 

 and so are Feathered Roses this time, and I may tell you 

 that you are very lucky if you do find this last one as 

 I describe it, for it is precious seldom I can manage to 

 grow a perfect feather in this garden. Higher up the bed 

 you will find Byb. fld. on labels, and will notice that here 

 again we may have the same variety as a lilac self with a 

 white base or as a white flower feathered, or feathered and 

 flamed, with some shade of lilac or purple instead of rose, 

 and these bear the old Dutch name of Bybloemen. Further 

 on we have some selfs, purple, chocolate, or rich red and 

 almost scarlet, but in all of these the bases are bright 

 yellow instead of white, and when they break the ground- 

 colour becomes yellow with marvellous, rich tones of copper, 

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