XXXVI 



ON TULIPS 



THERE is no writer on Tulips who does not love to 

 recall the great mania. It was the one outstanding 

 event in the history of the flower. It lives not merely 

 in gardening records, but in tables of the world's great 

 events. In a paper read before the Royal Horticultural 

 Society on March 9, 1909, by Mr. W. S. Murray, and 

 published in the Society's July Journal of the same year, 

 some highly interesting information about this extra- 

 ordinary craze was given. The bulbs became so valuable 

 that they were sold by weight like diamonds. The 

 weight was calculated in azen, an azen being less than 

 a grain. A large bulb would weigh between 500 and 

 1000 azen, and sell for sums varying between 1500 and 

 3500 florins. (A florin was is. 8d.) The highest price 

 recorded is 5500 florins (458, 6s. 8d.) for a small bulb 

 weighing only 200 azen (about ten grammes) of the 

 variety Semper Augustus. But payment was sometimes 

 in kind, and here is a table of goods, with their estimated 

 value, paid for one bulb of the variety Viceroy 



Value in Florins. 



2 loads of wheat ... . 448 



4 loads of rye ... . 558 



4 fat oxen .... . 480 



8 fat pigs 240 



1 2 fat sheep . . . . 1 20 . 



2 hogsheads of wine .... 70 



3 6a 



