Reprinted from the JourRNAL oF THE INTERNATIONAL GARDEN CLUB, VoL. III, No. 3, September, 1919 
Tulip Droppers 
By A. B. Stout 
may burrow downward in the soil and thus 
bury its main bulb to a depth of several inches, 
Such a plant is shown in figure 1 of the ac- 
companying plate. The cluster of roots, the 
portion of the stem from which they arose 
and the remnants of the old scale leaves at c indicate the level 
at which the base of the bulb sat during the preceding summer. 
Above this level a leaf extends upward into the air; below this 
level a hollow cylindrical column of tissue extends downward 
enclosing the bulb at its lower extremity. 
The terms “‘dropper’’ and “‘sinker’’ have been applied by 
tulip growers to the part which thus carries the bulb to lower 
levels. It appears that the habit of forming droppers is com- 
mon in wild species of tulips and especially during the growth 
of seedlings. Under ordinary methods of growing bulbs of 
garden varieties for display the formation of droppers appears 
to be somewhat infrequent. When droppers are observed for 
the first time by a gardener his interest is usually aroused 
which has led to occasional reports in various publications of 
the “discovery” of droppers in tulips. 
Descriptions of the true nature of the droppers in Tulipa 
(and in other genera also) have appeared from time to time, 
but it has seemed desirable to describe in this journal some 
unusually fine droppers which the writer has found at the 
New York Botanical Garden. 
The true nature of the dropper is revealed by a study of 
the stages in its development, and by an examination of its 
gross anatomy, and most especially of the distribution of the 
fibrovascular bundles or veins. 
