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OF THE TULIP. 



IF the account which I here give of the Tulip be 

 short and defective, I trust the following apology will 

 be considered satisfactory. I had., indeed,, purposed, 

 at setting out, to pass it over altogether, not only 

 because I was unwilling to swell this treatise to a 

 size that might render it inconvenient to be car- 

 ried in the pocket, as a kind of manual, which the 

 florist might readily and easily consult, and for 

 which I intended it, but because those flowers (I 

 mean the finer sorts) are not so very generally cul- 

 tivated. I have since, however, been induced to 

 change my determination; and, in doing so, shall 

 confine the subject matter to those points more es- 

 sentially and more immediately relating to its culti- 

 vation : by this, I shall perhaps avoid the reprehen- 

 sions, in some measure, of all those whose attention 

 is almost exclusively directed to the culture of this 

 flower, and who consider every other as unworthy of 



