THE TULIP. 



Tulipa GcSNerictna vt-rsicolor. 



speak wisely of the tulip in four 

 small pages of large type — how 

 is it to be done ? It can only be 

 done, if done at all, by concen- 

 trating attention on matters of 

 practical importance and ignoring 

 matters that a lover of flowers 

 may be ignorant of to advantage. 

 This is the preface. 



Tulips have been cultivated 

 from time immemorial, but the 

 so-called tulipomania is of too 

 recent a date to have acquired the 

 flavour of antiquity. It was at 

 its height from lO.'il- to 1037, and 

 was soon over; like any othei 

 bubble, it was too thin and too 

 hollow to last. The records of 

 its extravagances tax our powers of belief, but few his- 

 tories of mistakes and follies are so amply illustrated with 

 evidence we cannot dare to question. In the register of 

 the city of Alkmaar, 1637, is an entr}^ of a sale of tulips 

 for the benefit of the Orphan Hospital, when 120 bulbs 

 were sold for 9,000 florins, and one of these — the Viceroy — 

 2C 



