L iliacece Tulipa. 49 5 



2. TlTLIPA. 



Tulips as well as Eoses and Carnations have always held a 

 distinguished rank in floriculture, and ever since the sixteenth 

 century they have been the flowers of predilection with the 

 Belgians and Dutch, who have made them an object of con- 

 siderable commercial importance. At that period the passion 

 for Tulips was general, and with some it degenerated into a 

 very expensive mania, for which reason they were termed Tulip- 

 fools by their contemporaries. But time and especially the 

 progress of floriculture have put an end to these eccentricities, 

 and, although they have lost their ancient glory, Tulips still 

 preserve something of their former prestige ; and if men no 

 longer ruin themselves on their account, they still number a 

 great many admirers. The genus Tulipa of botanists is so 

 named from its Persian appellation tulib.an or thoulyban, in 

 allusion to its resemblance to the turban of the East. It is 

 almost unnecessary to say that they are bulbous plants with 

 simple one-flowered steins, whose flowers are composed of a 

 coloured 6-leaved perianth, in two series of 3 each, 6 stamens, 

 and a free ovary developing into a capsular 3-celled many- 

 seeded fruit. The species, or natural varieties, are rather 

 numerous, and at the same time very difficult to distinguish 

 from one another. All the species belong to the Old World, 

 and chiefly to the Mediterranean region and Western Asia. 

 One species, T. sylvestris, with yellow flowers, is found in the 

 eastern counties of England, but there is some doubt of its 

 being a true native. It does not appear, that the Tulip was 

 known in Europe previous to the Crusades, and the name, of 

 Eastern origin, seems to indicate at least that the first cultivated 

 varieties were brought from Asia. We find nothing in Greek 

 or Latin authors to lead us to suppose that the Tulip was 

 known in their times. 



The mode of vegetation of Tulips deserves an instant's atten- 

 tion from us. Their bulbs belong to the class termed tunicated, 

 because they are composed of the fleshy bases of leaves closely 

 imbricated, which are either developed or remain in a rudi- 

 mentary state, the whole enveloped in thin membranous scales. 

 In an adult Tulip we always find toward the end of Winter, 

 but before the blooming time, three distinct bulbs, each be- 

 longing to a different generation, namely (1) the flowering bulb 

 in the centre of which the flower-bud is already formed pre- 



