A GROUP OF TULIPS. 



As each individual Tulip shews a marked variety, so when grouped together, you have a striking 

 display of the wonderful power of the beneficent Creator, who has placed these beautiful objects 

 before us, for our recreation, and admiration ! Enveloped between two transparent skins is found 

 the colouring ingredients, so admirably disposed in a pulpy body, constituting the interior structure 

 of each petal ! How much does the imitative power of painting fall short in trying to represent these 

 ravishing beauties of the vegetable world ! 



For who indeed can paint 



Like Nature? Can Imagination boast, 



Amid his gay creation, hues like these ? 



And can he mix them with that matchless skill, 



And lay them on so delicately fine, 



And make these varied marks so just and true, 



That each shall tell the name denoting 



Its peculiar birth? 



The most cursory glance may indeed shew us that diversity which Tulips exhibit: but it will 

 require our nearer approaches to discover the distinctions in the habits, attitude, and lineaments, of 

 the several species which have given occasion to the appellations invented by florists. 



Most prominent in our group, you see a tulip, named after that unfortunate French monarch, 

 Louis XVI, then in the meridian of his glory; and it rises above the rest with princely 

 majesty, the edges of whose petals are stained with black, which is the true emblem of sorrow. 

 It finely displays the six Stamina placed around the Pistillum in the centre and its three interior, 

 and three exterior petals.*— The next Tulip in dignity has its six petals of a firmer structure, and is 

 bordered with dark purple, so that the most rigid critic might excuse the fancy of the florist, who has 

 named this flower after the man§ f Justum et tenacem propositi.'— Beneath these is La Majes- 

 tieuse, whose edges are clear, but it possesses an extensive blue purple stripe in the centre of each 

 petal.— The Carnation Tulip is called by Botanists La Triomphe Royale, which for beauty 

 of its pencilled stripes certainly triumphs over all the rest.— Beneath this is the Gloria Mundi, 

 whose yellow ground is an emblem of sublunary perfection. Its decisive dark purple lines at the edges, 

 or in the centre of the petals at their top, together with its stately position, sufficiently characterize this 

 individual. — The two remaining Tulips have been newly raised by Davey and Mason, and were 

 named by me, after two very distinguished patrons of this work, Her Grace the Duchess of 

 Devonshire, \ no less eminent for her fine sense and expressive beauty, — than Earl Spencer, || 

 for his memorable conduct of our navy, which has eclipsed, under his administration, even the glory of 

 our ancestors, which was previously imagined to exceed almost the bounds of human credibility. 





* Hence it comes under the Class Hexandria, Order Monogynia ; six males and one female. 



§ GENERAL WASHINGTON. 



% The Tulip on the top is the DUCHESS of DEVONSHIRE, and has fine dashes of a red purple on a pale straw ground. 



|| This Tulip, the EARL SPENCER, is characterised by its numerous fine pencilled purple stripes throughout the petals. 



P. S. Tulips with a white ground florists designate by the title of Bybloemen, and with a yellow ground by the name of Bizarre. So great once was 

 the rage in Holland for Tulips, that the Burgomasters found it necessary to enact a law, that no one should give more than forty pounds for a 

 Tulip ! Even in England, at this time, the LOUIS sells for forty Guineas, and the WASHINGTON for ten ! 





