TUL1PIA. 75 



tions in the open air, when planted about the -middle of May, 

 but succeeds better when planted. in pots, in March or April, 

 and brought forward in a hot-bed or green-house, and planted 

 in border the middle of June. It delights in a rich, sandy 

 loam. The top of the tuber should be near the surface of the 

 soil. The tubers are generally surrounded with numerous 

 offsets. It is recommended by some gardeners to break them 

 off; but I am inclined to believe that it is rather prejudicial to 

 the bloom than otherwise, and my practice is to let them 

 remain. Strong-grown roots only will bloom. The double 

 variety is the most desirable, though both are equally fragrant. 

 The Tuberose is propagated from the offsets taken off from 

 the parent tuber, and planted in a light, rich soil. As soon as 

 the foliage is killed by the frost in autumn, the roots should 

 be taken up, dried, and packed away in dry sand or moss, till 

 wanted in the spring, but they must be kept secure from frost. 



T U L I P I A. 



Garden Tulip. 



" Then comes the Tulip race, where beauty plays 

 Her idle freaks ; from family diffused 

 To family, as flies the father dust, 

 The varied colors run ; and while they break 

 On the charmed eye, th' exulting florist marks 

 With secret pride the wonders of his hand." 



The Tulip is a flower of easy cultivation. The varieties 

 are endless. With the early and late varieties the garden can 

 be made very gay all the month of May. 



These flowers became, in the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, the object of a trade for which there is no parallel, 

 and their price rose beyond the precious metals. Many 

 authors have given an account of this trade, some of whom 

 have misrepresented it. One author called it the Tulipomania ; 

 at which people laugh, because they believe that the beauty 



