1868 TULIPA 



from Turkey. This is one of the main reasons for 

 believing that T. suaveolens is not native to southern 

 Europe. At all events it is clear that T. snaveolens 

 has played an important part in the evolution of the 

 garden Tulip, the Due van Thol class being generally 

 credited to this source. The distincti..ns between T. 

 suaveolens and T. Gi'.^,i,'ri,n,,i lh -n 1" I .,v :ir. those of 

 Baker, but they do ui^f liol'l ■■•< ' ■■ ■ I v. It is 



impossible to refer iiiiy u'iv.n » . . 1 1 - taction 



to either type. Some writ. -r-^ li:i\ ' -i;! Mi:it tin- leaves 

 of T. suai'eolens are shorter and bruader tiiaii those of 

 T. Gesneriana. This char- 

 acter also fails. All grades 

 of pubescence are present. 

 Some pubescent plants 

 have long leaves and odor- 

 less flowers. Others have 

 short, glabrous leaves and 

 fragrant flowers. 



For practical purposes it 

 may be said that most of 

 the common garden Tu- 

 lips, at least the latf-flow- 



the li". >.ii. 1 i.-l .'lass, 

 aresu|.|.u,,i.l 1.. I., dirived 

 from r. saai-culeus. It is 

 impossible to press much 

 nearer the truth, as botany 

 is not an exact science and 

 the prototypes of the old 

 garden fa\ orites cannot be 

 known completth and pre 



^ nl I IT 1,1 - T h ( 



Holland, making tliat 

 growing industry of the 



TULIPA 



tlirougliout the centuries 

 country the center c.f tlie hi 

 world down to the present il 



The introduction ..f tliel'u|i|. into England is credited 

 to Clusius, about the year i:.77. Tulips reigned supreme 

 inEngli.sh gardens iiniil the l.e-inningof the eighteenth 

 century, when they were neglected by the ricli for the 

 many new plants from America. For a while the Tulip 

 was considered more or less of a poor man's flower, 

 though it has at no time been without many staunch 

 admirers among the upper classes. 



With the Turks the nar- 

 row acuminate flower-seg- 

 ments were in favor, while 

 western taste preferred the 



ided for 



(Fig 



plants 1 



stolen from 



lUmg to pay 



\fterthis theft the prop- 



d rapidly in Holland and 



favorite The production 



/e throughout the Netlier- 



the high pi 1 



agation of tli 1 



the flower sn i 1 



of new varietii s bi c i 



lands, culminating in the celebrated "tulipomania" 



which began in 16J4. The excitement continued for four 



years. Thirteen thousand florins were paid for a single 



bulb of Semper Augustus. Governmental interference 



was necessary in order to end the ruinous speculation. 



After the craze subsided, the production of varieties 



continued upon a normal basis, and has persisted 



2595). The Turks seem to 

 have been satisfied with a 

 preponderance of the reds 

 and yellows, for in the 

 first sowings of Turkish 

 seeds the majority of the 

 resulting blooms were of 

 those colors. It thus came 

 about that flowers so col- 

 ored were considered com- 

 mon and undesirable in 

 the European gardens and 

 all effort was directed to 

 the production of the 

 rarer white grounded va- 

 rieties with finely and dis- 

 tinctly marked stripes, 

 those with a sharp bright 

 red being the favorites. 

 Indisputable evidence of 

 this is seen in the old 

 Holland "still-life" paint- 

 ings of that time, where 

 one finds none Init the 

 rarer forms reprc'sented 

 (Solnis l.iMil.aelii, Allthe 

 earlv 'ruh|is >>( .1 i rec t 

 Turkisli ..riL-iu li.'i.l acute 

 more or less Ti.irnny and 

 reflexed segments. In- 

 deed, among all the old 

 engravings, including 

 those of Pena and Lobel, 

 1570, Clusius, 1576, Do- 

 doens, 1578, and Besler, 

 1613, no round - petaled 

 forms are found. Besler's 

 work, "Hortus Eystetten- 

 sis," contains magnificent 

 copper plates, tlie first in 

 any hook on plants. In 

 some copies the plates are 

 beautifully colored by 

 hand. The 53 figures of 

 Tulips in this grand work 

 show how widely diversi- 

 fied was this flower even 

 at that early date. In this 

 and in Parkinson's "Para- 

 disus Terrestris," 1629, 

 many are figured with in- 

 ner segments rounded and 

 outer acute, but none vice 

 versa (so far as could be 

 seen), though that form is mentioned in the descrip- 

 tions. The broad, rounded, erect-petaled forms were 

 developed later, apparently first by the Dutch growers 

 previous to and during the tulipomania, and produced 

 wholly by selection. This ideal has prevailed down to 

 the present time, for the narrow-jietaled varieties are 

 practically unknown among our conimon ^-iinleii forms; 

 so much so that the extreme typii-nl one has I n re- 

 ferred to a separate species (T. iinniininh, . l-'i^'. 21102). 

 In the Dutch fields they are now known as "thieves, 

 and are destroyed as soon as they make their appearance. 

 Parrot Tulips became known towards the end of the 

 seventeenth century. They were oftentimes considered 



