BULBOUS PLANTS. 



217 



species we have not much used them at my garden, nevertheless I 

 much admire them. 



I do not grow the florists' tulips (Tulipa Gesneriana\ which require 

 much trouble, and the cultivation of which is attended with consider- 

 able cost. I like to see a few Parrot tulips (fig. 413) in the borders, 

 for their extraordinary colours and forms, which remind us of the 



FIG. 413. Parrot Tulip. FIG. 414. Common Garden Tulip. 



gaudy plumage of macaws. Of the other border tulips (fig. 414) I 

 have put in many, but they always disappear : what the destroyers 

 are, I am unable to say. The single and double Van Thol tulips 

 are very charming for pot culture, and are much used for table 

 decoration in London and Paris. 



Francis records in the "Chronicle and Characters of the Stock 

 Exchange" that in 1634 the Tulipo-mania occurred in the chief cities 

 of the Netherlands, by which the value of a flower was raised to more 

 than its weight in gold; and that in one case "goods to the value 

 of 2,500 florins were given for one root," 

 and in another case "twelve acres of land 

 were paid." " Contracts were made and 

 thousands of florins paid for tulips which 

 were never seen by broker, by buyer, or 

 by seller." To this day the same mode 

 of gambling in its most pernicious form is 

 carried on at the Stock Exchange, on things 

 of even less value than a single tulip bulb. 



The Dielytra spcctabilis (fig. 415) is a charming Chinese plant, 



FIG. 415. Dielytra spectabilis. 



