REPORT 



OF THE 



TULIP NOMENCLATURE COMMITTEE. 



I. PREFATORY NOTE. 



By E. A. BOWLES, M.A., F.E.S., F.L.S., 



Chairman of the Committee. 



THE existence and labours of the R.H.S. Tulip Nomenclature Com- 

 mittee were brought about by the rapidly increasing popularity 

 during the last decade of the Garden Tulip. This popularity can 

 be traced to the introduction to commerce of a race of especially 

 sturdy, easily grown, self-coloured or Breeder Tulips, now known 

 as the Darwin Tulips. 



The taste for self-coloured Tulips spread rapidly, and old gardens 

 in Flanders, Great Britain, and Ireland were ransacked by enter- 

 prising enthusiasts for other races of May-flowering Tulips. Most 

 of these were the castaways of Tulip-raisers and were more often 

 discovered in cottage gardens than elsewhere, and therefore a very 

 heterogeneous set of plants has been gathered together under the 

 name of Cottage Tulips. The vigour of most of the forms of these 

 hitherto neglected strains proved so remarkable that it was not 

 long before large stocks were accumulated, and the May-flower- 

 ing Tulip was found to be an inexpensive and reliable plant for 

 spring gardening, being quite as suitable for forming masses of 

 colour in large gardens as for associating with other flowers in 

 the smallest garden plot. Many firms of nurserymen were soon 

 engaged in growing and selling them in Holland, Britain, and 

 Ireland ; new names were coined for them at such a rate and in so 

 many different centres that a certain amount of confusion arose 

 and the bestowal of more than one name for a variety was no 

 uncommon thing, 



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