TULIPS : 607 
nodding, glaucous blue without, rusty purple within; outer segments 
streaked with purple outside ; March. 
All the species described are hardy, and they will 
succeed in any well-drained border where the soil is of a 
fairly rich character. Although less exacting in the matter of soil even 
than Lilies, the directions given for the treatment of the latter may be 
followed closely in the case of Fritillarias. A similar remark may be 
applied to the propagation of the two genera by means of seeds and 
offsets. F. Meleagris is an excellent plant for grassy slopes or the wild 
garden. 
Description of Fritillaria Meleagris, the Snake’s Head; natural size. 
Plate 283. Fig | is a vertical section of the flower; 2, a transverse 
section of the ovary. 
Cultivation. 
TULIPS 
Natural Order LiniAcEz. Genus Tulipa 
TULIPA (said to be the Persian thoulybun, or tulipan, and the Turkish 
tulbend, a turban, Latinised). A genus of about sixty species of hardy 
bulbous herbs, the bulbs composed of thick scales rolled one in another. 
The leaves are narrow, lance-shaped or slender, originating from the bulb 
and from the stem, the lower ones sheathing. Flowers usually solitary, 
erect or (very rarely) nodding; bell-shaped, the perianth of six segments, 
free to the base, with the tips curved back. The six stamens are shorter 
than the perianth, and are attached at its base, surrounding the three- 
angled ovary and its three-lobed stigma. The seed capsule is erect, 
leathery, and many-seeded. The species are natives of Europe (one 
British), North Africa, North and West Asia. 
ie Tulipa sylvestris, the bright yellow-flowered wild 
Tulip occurs naturally in parts of England, but for a period 
of three hundred and twenty years we have had Tulipa gesneriana, 
from Asia Minor, flourishing in our gardens. This plant had been grown 
at Augsburg from seeds introduced from the Levant, and there, in 1559, 
it was seen by Conrad Gesner, who forthwith made a drawing and 
description of it. Gesner fell a victim to the Plague in 1565, but his 
works, containing much that is curious and interesting to the naturalist, 
still live. It was a characteristically happy thought of Linneus to 
attach Gesner’s name to the species, so that it is still Tulipa gesneriana, 
or Gesner’s Tulip. It was in cultivation here in 1577, and from it has 
originated, by sports and seed-bed variation and hybridising, such a 
