570 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



rattle fed upon hard food, and free from straw." 

 Hyacinths may be forced by planting the roots 

 in narrow deep pots, filled with sandy loam, in 

 October. These are to be plunged in old bark 

 and sand, the bulbs ^v^ll soon throw down roots, 

 and a part may in November be plunged into 

 bottom heat, when they will blow about Christ- 

 mas. A succession from the original stem, thus 

 treated will afford a bloom till the spring. 



Hyacinths form a beautiful ornament when 

 grown in glasses. For this purpose blue or any 

 dark coloured glass is preferable to white, because 

 too mucli light is injurious to the bulb. The 

 bulbs, for this purpose, should be put into earth 

 in October, in which they push out their fibres 

 more regularly, and they can be taken up as 

 wanted, washed from earth, and placed in the 

 glass, which should be kept in a warm room or 

 store. Soft water should be used, and the glass 

 is to be filled up so as to cover a quarter of an 

 inch of the bulb. As soon as the water becomes 

 fetid and muddy it should be renewed. When 

 these bulbs have done flowering, they are to be 

 removed from the glasses with all their leaves 

 and roots, and planted in an appropriate soil. 

 V/Jien the leaves have completely withered, the 

 bulbs are to be taken up and preserved dry till 

 the latter end of October, when they may be 

 planted in beds in the usual manner.* 



The Tulip (iuUpa gesneriana). Natural 

 family, UUaceiB ; hexandria, monogynia, of Lin- 

 nieus. This celebrated bulb is a native of the 

 Levant, and is common in Syria and Persia. 

 The Persians call it thoulyhan, hence the French 

 tulipan, and the English tulip. This plant 

 appears to have been brought to Europe from 

 Persia, by way of Constantinople, in 1659, and 

 in a century afterwards to have risen into an 

 object of considerable trade in the Netherlands. 

 At this period, indeed, and for long afterwards, 

 a sort of mania for this and other bulbs pre- 

 vailed among the Dutch; individual bulbs were 

 not unfrequently sold for £500 and upwards, 

 and immense sums of money lost and won by 

 speculations in this favourite flower. In Eng- 

 land it was first cultivated by Garnett, who, 

 according to Hakluyt, obtained the roots from 

 Vienna. 



The taste in England was at its height about 

 the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the 

 eighteenth century. It afterwards declined, and 

 gave way to a more extended taste for various 

 rare plants from foreign countries. The tulip, 

 however, is still extensively cultivated in Hol- 

 land, from which all Europe is supplied with 

 bulbs. It is also still raised to a considerable 

 extent near large towns in England. It has, 

 however, lost in a considerable degree that 

 fashionable patronage which it at one time 



* Loudon, Herbert, &o. 



acquired, and of consequence the prices of bulbs 

 have become much more reasonable. 



The natural colour of the petals of the tulip 

 is generally of a uniform hue, either white, pur- 

 ple, or red. The object of culture is to diversify 

 and mix colours to as great an extent as possible. 

 Hence innumerable varieties have arisen. 



Mason's London catalogue enumerates six 

 varieties of early blowing tulips; fourperroquets 

 or middle blowers, twenty-two double sorts, and 

 upwards of 600 single, the last being the only 

 kind valued by connoisseur florists. 



The beau ideal of a first rate tulip is thus 

 minutely specified. The stem should be strong, 

 elastic, and erect, and about thirty inches above 

 tlie surface of the bed. The flower should be 

 large, and composed of six petals. These should 

 proceed a little horizontally at first, and then 

 turn upwards, forming almost a perfect cup, 

 with a round bottom, rather widest at the top. 

 The three exterior petals should be rather larger 

 than the three inferior ones, and broader at their 

 base; all the petals should have perfectly entire 

 edges, free from notch or serrature. The top of eacli 

 should be bi-oad, and well rounded; the ground 

 colour of the flower at the bottom of the cup 

 should be clear, white, or yellow; and the various 

 rich coloured stripes, which are the principal 

 ornament of a fine tulip, should be regular, bold, 

 and distinct on the margin, and terminate in 

 fine broken points, elegantly feathered or pen- 

 cilled. 



The centre of each leaf or petal should con- 

 tain one or more bold blotches or stripes, inter- 

 mixed with small portions of the original or 

 breeder colour, abruptly broken into many irre- 

 gular, obtuse points. Some florists are of opinion 

 that the central stripes or blotches do not con- 

 tribute to the beauty and elegance of the tulip, 

 unless confined to a narrow stripe exactly down 

 the centre, and that they should be perfectly 

 free from any remains of the original or breeder 

 colour. It is certain that such appear very beau- 

 tiful and delicate, especially when they have a 

 regular, narrow feathering at the edge; but the 

 greatest connoisseurs in this flower unanimously 

 agree, that it denotes superior merit when the 

 tulip abounds with rich colouring, distributed in 

 a distinct and regular manner throughout the 

 flower, except in the bottom of the cup, which, 

 it cannot be disputed, should be a clear, bright, 

 white or yellow, free fi-om stain or tinge, in 

 order to constitute a perfect flower. The prin- 

 cipal varieties are thus arranged and character- 

 ized. 



A bizarre tulip has a yellow ground, marked 

 with purple or scarlet, of diff^erent shades. It 

 is called flamed when a broad ii-regular stripe 

 runs up the middle of the petals, with short, 

 abrupt, projecting points, branching out on each 

 side; fine narrow lines, called arched and ribbed, 



