•^ Spring Flowering ^ulbs (j£ 



which became tulip exchanges. A rare print of this 

 period entitled ' The Fool's Wagon ' satirized the mania 

 by showing a chaise-like car with Flora holding in one 

 hand a horn of plenty containing tulip blooms and in the 

 other three separate blooms. Three florists, named 

 ' Good for Nothing,' * Eager Rich,' and ' Tippler,' all 

 decked with tulips, are with her, and a crowd runs after 

 the car, trampling on their weaving looms etc., and 

 calling out, * We will all sail with you.' The only inter- 

 esting feature of this gambling in tulips is the fact that 

 the tulip ' fraternities ' took as their patron saint St. 

 Dorothea. This information is, I think, given in only one 

 book, The Dutch Gardener, translated into English in 

 1703. The author, Henry van Oosten, was an enthusi- 

 astic tulip grower and he describes his favourite flower 

 as ' the Queen of Flowers and the chief Jewel of Flora,' 

 and throughout the tulip grower is called ' the Lover.' 

 But, alas ! he does not tell us why St. Dorothea was 

 chosen to be the patron saint of the tulip fraternities. 



Forsythias are, I suppose, more commonly grown than 

 any of the other spring flowering shrubs, and if only their 

 golden bells were scented they would be even greater 

 favourites. Flowering at the same time as the Forsythias 

 are those established old favourites the American flowering 

 currants, still amongst the best of the scented spring 

 flowering shrubs. These natives of western North 

 America were introduced in 1826, and very soon became 

 so popular that they were grown in every cottage garden. 

 Their instant popularity is not surprising, for apart from 

 their intrinsic beauty and warm aromatic scent, they give 

 a mass of rosy-red colour in the garden at a time when 

 that colour is very scarce. They all root easily from 



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