114 DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS 



able risk of robbery and violence of tbe Kurds 

 in Central Asia, the happy hunting-ground par 

 excellence of collectors. No romance in the bulb 

 industry now ? Why, it is full of romance ! 

 And not the smallest of it, at least in the eyes 

 of some, is the patient work, the ceaseless, never- 

 beaten perseverance and experiment by which the 

 adventurously brought plants are acclimatised to 

 the chilly western countries, and cultivated and 

 varied to the manifold forms in which we find 

 them now grown in garden and green-house, and 

 catalogued under various names. 



The names are something of a trouble to 

 growers, at least some that I know. " Why," 

 asked one who, be it remembered, regarded his 

 work with seriousness and veneration, " Why will 

 your English people call the flowers by such 

 foolish names ? For an instance, ' Torch Lilies ! ' 

 Where is the torch ? Where the lily ? It is no 

 lily, see the root, see the flower. And for torch, 

 or for ' flame flower,' as you sometimes also call it, 

 there is no resemblance ; there is even none of 

 the waywardness, the unsteadiness or quivering of 

 flames ; these things, I grant you, are in some 

 flowers, as the pampas grass, but not in this, it is 

 a stiff, a formal flower. Yes, more like to a red- 



