84 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



now ; it is the plain-coloured varieties which are 

 most in favour, more especially the late " cottage " 

 sorts. In earlier days, in the time of the tulip 

 mania — at its height about 1634 to 1637 — the 

 fashion was for variegated tulips, and the enormous 

 prices that were given were for streaked and 

 pencilled, late blooming, single flowers ; and the 

 more they were striped, violet and rose on a 

 pure white ground, the more was paid for them. 

 The following description of what a tulip should 

 be was written between 1790 and 1797 ; the prices 

 by then had dropped to comparative moderation, 

 but the standard of beauty was much the same : 

 "The colours in greatest estimation in variegated 

 tulips are the blacks, golden yellow, purple violets, 

 and rose, and vermilion, each of which being varie- 

 gated various ways ; and such as are striped in 

 three different colours distinct and unmixed, with 

 strong regular streaks, but with little or no tinge of 

 the breeder, may be called the most perfect tulip." 

 Some of the varieties famous in the early days are 

 still grown in Holland, Louis the- XVI. and the 

 notorious Semper Augustus, one bulb of which is 

 said, at the height of the madness, to have been 

 sold for as much as 13,000 florins, though the price 

 dropped to fifty when a paternal government 



