^ The Scented Qarden (%2> 



sweetly scented, and the lovely little T. persica, which 

 likes a very warm spot on the rockery. Sir Daniel Hall 

 says of T. per sic a : ' T. per sic a is presumably only a culti- 

 vated form of T. australis. It has certainly been known 

 for two or three centuries in gardens, and Dr. Stapf 

 thinks it may be identified as a form which Clusius de- 

 scribed as sent to him from the south of France. There 

 is no authority for the specific name persica ; the early 

 writers like Parkinson called T. Clusiana by this name. 

 Nor is any wild habitat known. Actually it is a very 

 distinct form, marked by the fact that it is one of the 

 latest tulips to flower, opening only as the late flowering 

 garden tulips are going over.' 



Nothing is yet known of the origin of the tulip beyond 

 the fact that it is undoubtedly Eastern and a garden 

 flower when first seen by Europeans. Certainly no flower 

 has caused a greater sensation amongst plant lovers than 

 the tulip when it was first introduced into the gardens 

 of western Europe. Of its history before 1550 we know 

 nothing, except that it was one of the most esteemed 

 flowers in Turkish gardens, but for how long the Turks 

 have cultivated it we do not know. Busbequius, the 

 ambassador of the Emperor Ferdinand I to the Sultan, 

 mentions in a letter written in 1554 that he saw tulips 

 flowering in a garden between Constantinople and 

 Adrianople. i As we passed we saw everywhere abundance 

 of flowers such as the Narcissus, Hyacinths, and those 

 called by the Turks Tulipan, not without great astonish- 

 ment on account of the time of the year, as it was then 

 in the middle of winter, a season unfriendly to flowers. 

 Greece abounds with narcissus and hyacinths, which 

 have a remarkably fragrant smell ; it is indeed so strong 



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