Bulbs, Tuberous Plants and Grasses 265 



bedding, hyacinth bulbs can be used only once, which makes 

 them costly. In any case they should be lifted after they have 

 ripened and be stored until autumn in a cool cellar. 



In some of our public parks, planted by politicians to please 

 the ignorant masses, one sees tulip beds that are amazing with 

 sharply contrasted zones of colour laid on in patterns that are 

 about as decorative on a lawn as patches of gay oilcloth. Similar 

 beds, intensified by chromo lithography, appear in the catalogues 

 and serve as models, alas! for gardeners throughout the length 

 and breadth of the land. Let it be remembered that it was the 

 gentle Linnaeus who dubbed double flowers "vegetable monsters." 

 Among true tulip lovers the double forms, laboriously obtained 

 by the hybridiser, find little favour. They have no authority from 

 Nature for their abnormalities, whereas every line of the single, 

 long-stemmed, pointed-petalled kinds is full of exquisite grace. 

 They are the natural forms restored, perfected. Only single tulips 

 can ever be fittingly naturalised tulips whose clear colour, 

 pointed petals, and dark spot at their base indicate nearness to the 

 beautiful wild type. Gesnerianas may be had for fifteen dollars 

 a thousand. The effect of that number of majors, of brilliant, rich 

 red blotched with black at the bottom of their cup, is simply superb 

 and, when naturalised among the lush May grass, cannot be 

 rivalled even by the gorgeous Oriental poppies which sulk under 

 such treatment. For naturalising in open woods and half-shaded 

 places, try T. sylvestris, a pale yellow, pointed-petalled flower. 



Early flowering tulips commend themselves not only 

 because they come at the most ecstatic season of the year, and set the 

 garden ablaze with rich colour when fires are still comfortable 

 indoors, but because they have finished their show when it is time 

 to transplant annuals from the hotbeds to the garden. The bulbs 



