190 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES I.-TU LI PA SYLVESTRIS. Linn. 



Plate MDXX. 



Belch. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. CCCCXLVI. 

 Billof, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1550. 



Bulb producing a single new bulb and no offsets witliin its coats, 

 but throwing out a stolon, at the extremity of which an offset bulb 

 is formed ; coats brown, not woolly inside. Leaves slightly glau- 

 cous, strapshaped-elliptical, or the upper ones strapshaped, gradually 

 attenuated into an acute point. Flowers 1 (rarely 2 or 3), yellow, 

 drooping in bud. Outer perianth leaves elliptical-oval, shortly acu- 

 minate or subcuspidate ; inner ones elliptical, gradually acuminate. 

 Stigma minute. Capsule broadly fusiform-prismatic, trigonous, acu- 

 minated at each end. 



In woods, orchards, old chalk-pits and quarries, and in meadows 

 and pastures. Widely distributed, but doubtfully native in England. 

 Not native in Scotland, but naturalised here and there throughout 

 the country as far north as Brechin, Forfarshire. 



England, [Scotland]. Perennial. Late Spring, early Summer. 



Bulb flowering when about the size of a filbert, and rarely attaining 

 the size of a dried date, remarkable for not forming its offsets Avithin 

 the coats of the bulb, but at the end of a long stolon, a mode of 

 increase which I do not know to occur in any other species of the 

 genus.* Stem 1 to 2 feet high, slightly flexuous, bare of leaves in 

 the up])er half. Leaves 2 or 3, the longest 4 to 8 inches long, widely 

 channelled, glaucous. Perianth leaves li to 2 inches long, bright 

 yellow. Anthers about ^ inch long, j'cllow, their filaments woolly at 

 the base. Capsule about 1 inch long, with three ovate sides, acumi- 

 nated at each end. Seeds light brown, about ^ inch across. 



The flowers are rarely produced in Britain, at least in many loca- 

 lities; but in gardens it flowers freely. 



Wild Tulip. 



French, TuUpe saurage. Germau, Wald-Tulpc. 



This species of Tulip, though wild, is .uuch admired in gardens for its delicate 

 perfume, and when doublo by cultivation is higlily prized. The mania for expensive 

 varieties of Tulips was at one time very remarkaljle, and gave rise to enormous specula- 

 tions. These expensive bulbs are chiefly derived from T. Gcsnerlana of the Levant, and 

 are prized to an extravagant degree in Holland. This taste extends to the East ; and a 

 Tulip feast is held annually in the Seraglio. Chardin's account of the symbolic 

 meaning of a Tulip in Persia is rather ridiculous. He says that when a young man 



* M. Grenier has transposed this character in his descriptions of Tulipa sylvestris 

 and T. Celsiana. 



