Tulips 



were not enough has an edge of yellow just the- shade of 

 a beaten-up egg. Sir Harry is a lovely mauve-pink, and 

 breaks into a still more wonderful thing known as Striped 

 Beauty, in which the original rosy-lilac shade has crimson 

 and cerise stripes added to it. There are many kinds of 

 various shades of yellow, reckoned as cottage varieties, and 

 some of them have been already mentioned as forming part 

 of the golden store of Tom Tiddler's ground, but a reserve 

 fund of some of the best is kept here. Pure whites are scarce; 

 Albion and L'Innocence are the best, but Picotee with a 

 rose-coloured edge, and Carnation with more and deeper 

 rose colour, are exquisite pale flowers, and this class includes 

 the two varieties of the Green Tulip, T. mriciiflora praecox 

 and tardiva ; the former and earlier one is the best with a 

 larger flower, and of a better and softer green ; the other 

 has a wide yellow edge to its segments and is not so pleas- 

 ing. The early one is very pretty when cut and grouped 

 with rose-coloured Tulips. Then we reach the Darwins, 

 and the first few rows here are like the horrid child's sweet 

 and were pink once, but have broken and so become what 

 the Dutch nurserymen have christened Rembrandt Tulips. 

 Some of them are very beautiful with bold splashes of 

 crimson and scarlet on a white ground, but when they 

 break they always lose a few inches of their stature, and I 

 am afraid some of their grand sturdy constitution goes too, 

 for they never seem as healthy as their breeder forms, the 

 Darwiris. Among the red Darwins Isis stands out as the 

 very brightest and best. La Noire is the nearest to black 

 I grow, and quite as near as one wants a flower to be. 

 Margaret is the palest pink I care about. Nigrette is a 

 curious and beautiful brown red, the Bishop the best bright 

 249 



