HYACINTH CULTURE AT HAARLEM 143 



— so he cultivated it with the rest and obtained bulbs from 

 it. He found it was much admired by amateurs, who were 

 ready to pay a good price for it. So he took to cultivating 

 the double as well as the single, and soon began to be as 

 anxious to find them among " Conquests " as before he was 

 to get rid of them. 



Of the double species the first known was named " Marie," 

 this and the two kinds that followed are now lost. " Le Roi 

 de la grande Bretagne " existed only seventy years — this was 

 rare and much sought after, and the price rose to many 

 thousand florins. This bulb, imported to hot climates, grew 

 infinitely better than in Haarlem ; for it soon died in cold 

 or damp spots. From this time great attention began to be 

 paid to the cultivation of hyacinths raised from seed. 



The number of " Conquests " has now become immense, 

 and many more grow bulbs than in former days, and every 

 grower makes his own catalogue, in which his " Conquests " 

 are known under names which are kept in all the lists which 

 are re-written every year. In this list there may be flowers 

 of different colour bearing the same name — such as " Gloria 

 Mundi," which is classed with the blues ; the same name 

 re-occurs classed with reds and whites. Frequently double- 

 flowering bulbs of different colour have the same name — 

 so that it is as well, when ordering a particular bulb, to 

 specify and enter into details when Writing the order. 

 Then mistakes will be prevented, which are as distasteful 

 to the grower as to the dissatisfied purchaser. Growers do 

 not all agree in classing their bulbs, some for example 

 classing among reds a hyacinth which another would call 

 white with red heart, and which a third might call pink and 

 white, or flesh colour. Besides which the exact shade or 

 nuance differs perhaps in every garden — and it is not so easy 

 to class hyacinths in a way to satisfy everyone, any more than 

 it is easy to produce a completely satisfactory Method of 



