TULIP. 



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harmoniously blended as to impart gaiety and splendor not 

 to be found in any other flower in cultivation. Such is the 

 infatuation produced by the Tulip, that when a person once 

 begins to be acquainted with them, they absorb the whole 

 mind, as if by magic, from the pursuit of other flowers ; 

 indeed the mania was so great for them, in 1637, that a 

 collection of 120 bulbs sold at auction for over forty-two 

 thousand dollars ; one variety with offsets out of that list 

 sold for near twenty-five hundred dollars. The following 

 is extracted from the Encyclopaedia Americana, which 

 gives an account, almost incredible, of their estimation in 

 former times: "In 1636 and 1637, a real Tulip mania 

 prevailed in Holland. Bulbs, which the seller did not 

 possess, were sold at enormous prices on condition that 

 they should be delivered to the purchaser at a given time ; 

 13,000 florins were paid for a single Semper- Augustus ; for 

 three of them together, 30,000 florins ; for 148 grains weight, 

 4500 florins ; for 296 grains of Admiral Liefkenshock^ 

 more than 4000 florins ; for Admiral Enkhuigen, more 

 than 5000 florins ; and for a Viceroy, on one occasion, was 

 paid 4 tons of wheat, 8 tons of rye, 4 fat oxen, 8 pigs, 12 

 sheep, 2 hhds. of wine, 4 barrels of beer, 2 barrels of but- 

 ter, 1000 pounds of cheese, a bundle of clothes, and a 

 silver pitcher. At an auction, in Alimaer, some bulbs 

 were sold for more than 90,000 florins. An individual, in 

 Amsterdam, gained more than 68,000 florins by the trade 

 in four months. In one city in Holland, it is said, more 

 than 10,000,000 Tulip bulbs were sold, but on account of 

 the purchasers refusing to pay the sums agreed upon, the 

 States General, April 27th, 1637, ordered that such sums 

 should be exacted like other debts in the common way ; 



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