AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (AcaioOLTURAL Warehouse.) 



vol.. XVII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 18, 1838. 



t».'o. a. 



AGRICULTURAL. 



From the llorticnUunil Uegister. 



FLOWERS, FRUITS, AND TREES. 



BY H. A. S. DEARBORN. 



Mr Breck — The season having been unusually 

 favorable for vegetation, and especially since the 

 15tli of May, the coiisc(|uent verdant and magnifi- 

 cent appearance of the country, with the blandness 

 and congeniality of the weather, have induced vast 

 numbers of persons, to visit the many highly cul- 

 tivated gardens in the environs of Boston, several 

 of which hav? attracted universal attention, either 

 from tlie great variety of ornamental plants they 

 contain, or the beauty of some favorite kinds, tliat 

 have been managed in the most skilfiil manner. 



Mr Walker's exhibition' of Tulips became the 

 first chief point of attraction for nearly two weeks, 

 and thousands were delighted, with the superb dis- 

 play, of that infinitely various and gorgeous family 

 of flowers. 



Otlier towns, it appears, have also enjoyed a like 

 interesting spectacle ; but a discrimination must be 

 made between the merit ^ne for quantity, and th; t 

 resulting from liie excellence of the varieties, ana 

 the perfection of their development The enter- 

 prising gentlemen of Newburyport and Salem, are 

 entitled to great credit, for che taste they have 

 evinced, in the culture of elegant plants; but it is 

 presumed they do not claim precedence, unless 

 they had also as many kinds which were as rare 

 and perfect in florescence, as those which Mr 

 Walker presented ; for the mere superiority in imm- 

 ber, cannot be considered as giving pre-eminence, 

 in any vegetable production, unless it is of some 

 very peculiar or notoriously useful species. 



To obtain bulbs of the best kinds of Tulips from 

 Holland, Belgium, France, and England, is very 

 difficult and expensive, as every person has expe- 

 rienced, who has undertaken to introduce any par- 

 ticular plant from foreign countries. The bulbs, 

 generally sent to this country for sale, are the re- 

 jected of the large nurseries, as all the most choice 

 and valuable kinds are carefully reserved for tlie 

 European markets, where the amateur purchasers 

 are numerous, and willing and able to pay the high- 

 est price, for the remarkable varieties. Even in 

 our day the extravagant passion for Tulips has not 

 entirely subsided, and from 500 to 1500 dollars 

 have been given, within a few years, for a single 

 bulb, while those disposed of, at our auction sales, 

 do not average more than from five to fifleen cents, 

 and often not so much. Some of Mr Walkers 

 cost in London fifty dollars each, and many of them 

 from tea to twenty. 



I have cultivated the tulip during a number of 

 years, and had five thousand in bloom at one time, 

 three thousand of wliicli were in a bed, and the 

 remainder scattered in th-^ borders of the avenues 

 and garden walks ; but as a show of flowers, it was, 

 in all respects, inferior to that of Mr Walker's bed 

 of only eight hundred, from the inferiority of the 1 



kinds, small number of distinguished varieties' 

 negligent mode of cultivation, and imperfect flor- 

 escence. 



To give this superb flower an opportunity of dis- 

 playing all its charming attributes, tlie soil must 

 be deeply trenched, and enriched by a peculiar 

 compost of thoroughly decomposed barn-yard ma- 

 nure, river sand, and decayed leaves or other vege- 

 table matter, while a screen is indispensable to 

 protect the plants, from the cold, night air, the ili- 

 rect rays of the sun, and violent winds, when burst- 

 ing into flower and during the period of their 

 bloom. This Mr Walker provided, at an bxpense 

 of several hundred dollars, in a neat and complete 

 manner, in the foi-m of a beautiful pavilion, which 

 was covered with stout white cotton cloth, so arrang- 

 ed, as to be easily rolled up, and let dov/n, by means 

 of puUies. 



Tulips have been a favorite florist's flower for 

 centuries, not only in Holland, but in England and 

 other European nations ; and as early as 1630, 

 Parkiuson, after enumerating one hundred and for- 

 ty sorts, observes in his quaint manner, that " to 

 tell of all the kinds which are the pride of delight, 

 they are so many, as to pass my ability, and, as I 

 believe, the skill of any other." He was a cele- 

 brated herbist and botanist, and acted i;i that capa- 

 city to James I, and Charles I. His book on gar- 

 dening is the first which was published in Great 

 Britain, worthy of consideration. It is entitled 

 " Paradisi Insole Paradisus Terrestres ; or a gar- 

 den of all sorts of pleasant flowers, which our 

 English ayre will admit to be nursed up ; with a 

 kitchen garden of all manner of herbes, roots and 

 fruits for meate, and sause used with us ; and an 

 orchard of all sorts of fruit bearing trees and 

 shrubbes, fit for our land, together with the right 

 ordering, planting and preparing of them, and their 

 use and virtues." 



In Parkin.^on's time tulips were divided into prct- 

 cocts, or early blowers, and scrolina, or late blow- 

 ers, witli an intermediate class of duhi/R medite, 

 doubtful or middle blowers, as they flowered be- 

 tween the two others. The early blowers, hive 

 short stems and the Due Van Throll is almost the 

 only variety in repute, among modern florists. The 

 great number of distinguished and admired varie- 

 ties are all produced from the late blowers, which 

 having tall steins and much finer colors, engross 

 nearly tlie whole attention of the cultiv.ators of tu- 

 lips. The modern mode of classing the late blow- 

 ers by the Dutch florists is as follows. 



Prime Briguits, from the French word baguette, 

 a rod, or wand ; they are very tall, witli handsome 

 cups and white bottoms, well broken with fine 

 brown, and all from the same breeder. 



Riffaxit's BagiuUn. — This variety is supposed to 

 have received their distinctive appellation from 

 some individual by the n'lme of Rigiut, wlio was 

 eminent in this branch of floriculture. They are 

 not quite so till as t'.ie former, but have strong steins, 

 and very large well formed cups, with white bot- 

 tom «, handsomely brolien with rich brown color, 

 and all from the sime breeder. 



Incomparable Verports. — A particular kind of 

 Bybloemens. Cups very perfect, cherry-red and 

 rose color and white bottoms, well broken with 

 shining brown. Some of these are from ten to 

 twentyfive dollars a root. 



B'/bloemens, or next flowers, called by the French 

 Flatiumk. They have white ground, or nearly so, 

 and are beautifully broken, with shades of purple 

 and a variety of colors. They are from different 

 breeders. 



Bizarres, from the French odd, or irregular. 

 Ground yellow, from diiferent breeders, and broken 

 with a variety of colors. 



Pftroqiietx, or Parrot Tulips. — The edges of the 

 petals are fringed, colors brilliant crimson andyel 

 low, with shades of bright green ; but still they arc 

 held in no sort of esteem among florists. 



Djuble. — Thesf are of various, brilliant rod, 

 yellow and mLxed colors; but, like many other 

 double flowers, are deemed monsters, and not ap- 

 preciated by flower fanciers, although they have 

 an elegant appearance, from their upright, tall, and 

 firm stems, and crowns of large pseony shaped 

 flowers, and when scattered with the Parrot, among 

 the small shrubs and other plants in the borders of 

 avenues and walk':, or planted out in separate beds, 

 they have a pb <iing effect. 



In the catalogue of Mosan for 1820, there are 

 six sorts of early tulips, four of Paroquets, twenty- 

 two double, and upward of six hundred late kinds. 



Breeders are such as have been procured from 

 the seed, and consist of one color, which is red, 

 purple, violet, gray, brown, black, yellow, or some 

 other individual color, without any sort of varia- 

 tion. These are cultivated in a rather poor and 

 dry soil, and become broken, or variegated, in from 

 one to twenty years, and produce new varieties ; 

 bui so uncertiin is the prospect of a favorable re- 

 sult, that but few persons have been willing to 

 make experiments, for after many years of patient 

 and unremitted attention, there may not be one re- 

 markable and choice variety, out of a thousand 

 seedling bulbs. It is from this circumstance, tKat 

 a new and superb tulip commands the high prices 

 in Europe which have been named, and actually 

 paid, within a few years. 



When the Tulip has broken, the colors are un- 

 changeable, and are perpetuated by offsets from the 

 parent bulb. 



The tulips which are deemed worthy of special 

 attention, by amateurs, belong chiefly to the classes 

 of Bizarres and Bybloemens: aild the properties of 

 a fine variegated late variety, according to the best 

 modern florists, are as follows. 



Petals of a graceful form, the three exterior 

 ones larger at the base than those of the interior ; 

 colors dclic ite, yet conspicuous, from the manner 

 in which the tints are displayed, whether spotted, 

 strip-^d, feathered, blotched, splashed, pencilled, 

 mottled, flaked, or as the Fre.nch more significant- 

 ly term the breakings of this flower jianachs ; 

 edges entire and rounded, or bui sligiitly crenatea, 

 at the summit, and so symmetrically arranged, as 

 to form a peifect cup-sliaped corulla, with a round 



