In My Vicarage Garden 



early tulip flowering in January and February, 

 and I do not. know what he meant by it ; the 

 others he places in April. Evelyn also mentions 

 " precoce tulips " as in flower in January. I need 

 not say anything of the rapid rise of the flower 

 into popular favour till it culminated in the tulip 

 mania ; but though the flower has never entirely 

 gone out of fashion, it has had more ups and 

 downs than most flowers. Van Oosten, a Dutch 

 gardener, who published an excellent English book 

 on gardening in 1703, after giving his opinion that 

 the art of gardening could go no further than the 

 tulips which he produced, refused to tell the secret 

 of his cultivation, because " it is a madness to give 

 laurels to an ass who deserveth only nettles " ; 

 and he says that, " having been the most beloved 

 object of princes, they are at last become the 

 subject of the scorn of men." There is complete 

 evidence that the name was given by Gesren 

 from the Turkish Cap, and the name, with slight 

 changes, has been adopted in most of the countries 

 of Europe. 



I am not now giving a complete list of the 

 many beautiful flowers that brighten our English 

 springtide ; I am only picking a few here and 

 there, and among the chief ornaments of spring 

 I reckon the flowering shrubs. This year the 

 shrubs have been clothed with a beauty that few 

 of us have ever seen before. The laurustinuses 

 were sheets of white, but they did not like the 

 cold winds of March and April. The different 



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