TUL 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



TUL 



717 



to be preserved, should be marked with sticks ; and at the sea- 

 son for taking up the bulbs, they must be separated from the 

 others, in order to be planted as breeders in different beds ; but 

 you should by no means throw out the rest until they have 

 flowered two or three years, because it is impossible to judge 

 exactly of their value in less time; for many, which at first 

 flowering appear beautiful, will afterwards degenerate so as 

 to be of little value; and others which did not please at first, 

 will many times improve, so that they should be preserved until 

 their worth can be ascertained. In this method many sorts 

 of new breeders will be annually raised, from which there will 

 always be fine flowers broken, which, being the produce of a 

 person's own sowing, will be greatly valued, because they 

 are not to be any where else obtained; upon which principle 

 alone the price of all exquisite flowers depends. Thus far we 

 have treated of the method of raising these flowers from seed ; 

 what follows relates to the management of those roots termed 

 breeders, in order that some of them may every year break out 

 into fine stripes. In this art. however, it must be admitted 

 there is no absolute certainty; all that can be done is to shift 

 the roots every year into fresh earth of different mixtures, 

 and into different situations. The earth of these Tulip-beds 

 should be changed every year, because, though it be gene- 

 rally agreed that lean hungry fresh earth hastens their 

 breaking, and causes their stripes to be the finer and more 

 beautiful, yet, if they be every year planted in the same sort 

 of soil, it will not produce so great an effect upon them as 

 if they were planted every year in a different kind of earth. 

 If some fine-striped Tulips are planted in the same bed with 

 the breeders, intermixing them together, it will cause the 

 breeders to break the sooner. The best compost for these 

 roots is a third part of fresh earth from a good pasture, 

 which should have the sward rotted with it, a third part of 

 sea-sand, and the other part sifted lime-rubbish ; these 

 should be all mixed together six or eight months at least 

 before it is used, and should be frequently turned in order 

 to mix the parts well together. With this mixture the beds 

 should be made about two feet deep, after the following 

 manner: after the old earth is taken out of the bed to the 

 depth iatended, then some of the fresh earth should be put 

 in about eighteen inches thick; this should be levelled exactly, 

 and then lines drawn each way of the bed, chequerwise, at 

 six inches' distance ; upon the centre of each cross, should 

 be placed the Tulip-roots, in an upright position, and after 

 having finished the bed in this manner, the earth must be 

 filled in, so as to raise the bed six or eight inches higher, 

 observing, in doing this, not to displace any of the roots, 

 and also to lay the top of the beds a little rounding, to throw 

 off the water. There are many persons so careless in plant- 

 ing their Tulip-roots, as only to dig and level the beds well, 

 and then with a blunt dibble to make holes, into which they 

 put the roots, and then fill up the holes with a rake: but 

 this is by no means a good method ; for the dibble, in making 

 the holes, presses the earth closely on each side, and at the 

 bottom, whereby the moisture is often detained so long about 

 the roots as to rot them, especially if the soil be inclinable 

 to bind ; besides, the earth being hard at the bottom of the 

 bulbs, they cannot so easily emit their fibres, which must 

 certainly prejudice them. The beds ought to be sunk more 

 or less below the surface, according to the moisture or dry- 

 ness of the ground, for the roots must be so elevated as never 

 to have the water standing near the reach of their fibres in 

 winter, for moisture is very injurious : hence where the soil 

 is very wet, it will be proper to lay some lime-rubbish under 

 the earth, in order to drain off the wet, and the beds should 

 be entirely raised above the level of the ground ; but to 



prevent their falling down into the walks after frosts or hard 

 rains, raise the path between them, either with sea-coal 

 ashes or rubbish, eight or ten inches, which will support 

 the earth to the beds ; and these paths may slope at each 

 end from the middle, which will make a passage for the 

 water to run off as it falls. But where the soil is dry, the 

 bottom of the beds may be sunk eighteen or twenty inches 

 below the surface, which will be allowance enough for their 

 settling. During the winter season, there will be no farther 

 care required. The roots being planted thus deep, will be 

 in no danger of suffering by ordinary frosts, but in very 

 severe winters rotten tan or pease-haulm may be laid over 

 the beds to keep out the frost, otherwise they are very 

 subject to blight and decay soon after they appear, if the 

 frost pinches their tops ; but it it will be necessary to cover 

 them in such nights only when there is a prospect of frost, 

 for at all other times they should have as much air as pos- 

 sible, without which they will draw up weak, and produce 

 small flowers. When the breeding Tulips are in flower, 

 carefully examine them, to see if any of them have broken 

 into beautiful stripes, and mark such by placing a stick in 

 the ground to plant' among the striped flowers in the follow- 

 ing year. Carefully, however, observe whether they have 

 thrown off their former colour entirely ; and when they decay, 

 notice whether they appear beautiful to the last, and not 

 smeared over with the original colour, otherwise they will 

 very probably resume their old colour in the next year. But 

 if their stripes be clean and distinct to the bottom, and con- 

 tinue so to the last, which is what the florists term dyeing 

 well, there is no great danger of their relapsing; for if one of 

 these flowers be quite broken, it will never lose its stripes, 

 though sometimes it will blow much fairer than at others, 

 and the flowers of the offsets will often be more beautiful 

 than those of the old roots. This alteration in the colour of 

 these flowers may be seen long before they are blown, for 

 all the green leaves of the plant will appear of a fainter 

 colour, and seem to be striped with white, or of a brownish 

 colour, which is a plain proof that the juices of the whole 

 plant are altered, or at least the vessels through which the 

 juice is strained; whereby particles of a different figure 

 are capable of passing through them, which, when entered 

 into the petals of the flower, reflect the rays of light in 

 a different manner, which occasions the variety we see in 

 the colours of the flowers. This breaking of the colours pro- 

 ceeds from weakness, or at least is the cause of weakness 

 in plants ; for it is observable, that after Tulips are broken 

 into stripes, they never grow so tall as before, nor are the 

 stems, leaves, or flowers, so large as before ; and it is the 

 same in all other variegated plants and flowers whatever, 

 which become much tenderer than they were before they 

 were striped ; so that many sorts of exotics, which acciden- 

 tally become variegated in their leaves, are often rendered 

 so tender as not to be preserved without much more care, 

 though the striping of Tulips never occasions so great weak- 

 ness in them as to render them very tender. The greatest 

 effect it has on them is in lessening their growth, causing 

 some, which while they continued in their original plain 

 colours rose near two or three feet in height, to advance 

 little more than two after their colours were altered ; and 

 the more beautiful the stripes appear, the shorter will be 

 their stems, and the weaker their flowers. There is nothing 

 more to be observed in the culture of striped flowers than 

 what has been directed for breeders, excepting that these 

 should be arched over with tall hoops and rails, -that they 

 may be shaded from the sun in the day-time, and protected 

 from strong winds, hard rains, and frosty mornings, otherwise 



