2 REPORT OK THE TULIP NOMENCLATURE COMMITTEE. 



Wherever a footpath exists over some open stretch of land, 

 and especially where such a track is still in course of formation, 

 it is generally noticeable that the track takes an indirect route. 

 It may be that a winding course was used for no apparent reasons 

 by the first who made a short cut ; or again devious tracks wind 

 away from the main one, due to the individual inclinations of 

 pedestrians, and a network of paths may result, and need arises 

 for signposts or fences to prevent strangers from losing their 

 way. The opportunities for individual action in the naming 

 of Tulips have been very numerous. Many growers translated 

 foreign names into their own language ; for instance * Kanarie- 

 vogel ' became ' Canary Bird/ and ' Reve de Jeunesse ' ' Dream/ 

 Others, taking greater liberties, changed the name altogether. 

 'Salmon Queen * and 'Landelle' represented the same variety, and 

 if anyone bought the Tulips named 'Clio/ 'Biscuit/ 'Bronze 

 Queen/ 'Sensation/ and 'Due d'Orleans/ the flowering season 

 showed he had but one brown variety and not five. 



Tulip-growers were beginning to feel the time had come for 

 some action to be taken ; a fence was needed to prevent further 

 straying into paths of fancy nomenclature. The climax was 

 reached when a Darwin variety found to be useful for forcing was 

 renamed in the R.H.S. Hall at a Spring show, and eventually 

 appeared in lists at 2s. a dozen more under its new name than 

 under the one it had borne for many years. 



So in the autumn of 1913 the Council of the R.H.S. issued invita- 

 tions to the leading growers to send Tulip bulbs to Wisley, and a 

 joint committee of English and Dutch experts was appointed to 

 draw up a scheme of classification that should be useful for Garden 

 purposes, and to settle the synonymy of the varieties bearing 

 more than one name. 



This Committee, as originally formed, consisted of Mr. E. A. 

 Bowles (Chairman), Mr. E. Krelage (Vice-Chairman), and Messrs. J. de 

 Graaff, T. Hoog, Jan Roes, P. R. Barr, C. W. Needham, A. D. Hall, 

 W. T. Ware, G. W. Leak, and the Rev. Joseph Jacob, with Mr. C. C. 

 Titchmarsh as Trials Officer, and later was strengthened by the addi- 

 tion of Mr. R. W. Wallace. Mr. Jacob was deputed to visit Holland 

 and, in conjunction with the Dutch Bulb-growers' Association, pre- 

 pare a preliminary list of synonyms, and the Committee met at 

 Wisley in April and again in May, both in 1914 and 1915, to consider 

 the Early and May-flowering varieties while in full bloom. 



It is a matter of great regret that, owing to the War and the con- 

 sequent difficulty of travelling between Holland and England, the 

 Committee was deprived of the valuable help of its Dutch members 

 at their Wisley meetings in 1915. 



However, the lists of names were revised in Holland, and much 

 valuable assistance was kindly afforded. 



These lists alone will show the magnitude of the work before the 

 Committee, and it would have been quite impossible to have examined 



