46 



THE ELOWEE GrAEDE^N". 



very' generally employed on the altars in Italian 

 churches, where the perfume exhaled by its pure white 

 flowers is said to have the same effect as mignonnette- 

 boxes in London ; namely, the keeping of evil smells and 

 infections at bay. Double tuberoses will be preferred as 

 handsomer, if not more odoriferous, than single ones. 

 "While the flower-stem is rising, the plant is greedy of 

 heat and water ; admit air also at every available oppor- 

 tunity. 



Tulip. — There are several species of Tulip, all of 

 which produce elegant flowers. The "Wild Tulip, Tulipa 

 sylvestris, bears bright yellow flowers in April or May. 

 There is a very showy double variety, which, though not 

 esteemed by florists, is very effective as a border flower. 

 T. suaveolens, the sweet-scented or Van Thol Tulip, is 

 an extremely pretty dwarf plant, with bright-red petals 

 edged with yellow, flowering in April, and valuable for 

 forcing, in association with other spring bulbs. It may 

 be left all winter in the open ground. Parrot tulips, 

 also early, remarkably showy, and well adapted for pot- 

 culture, are supposed varieties of T. sylvestris. The 

 tulip about which the Dutch once went mad, the Flo- 

 rists' Tulip, which still retains its admiring fanciers, is 

 I. Gesneriana, or G-esner's Tulip. 



On the Elorists' Tulip a treatise might be written 

 which should far exceed the entire limits of the present 

 Book. It is a special, and somewhat thorny as well as 

 complicated branch of the grand floricultural tree. Nor 

 are all growers agreed as to classification and manage- 

 ment. To convey to the uninitiated some idea of the rules 

 of art, it is worth while transcribing from u Grlenny's 

 Properties of Plowers," the twelve points which he has 

 laid down as indispensable for the Tulip : — " 1. The cup 

 should form, when quite expanded, from half to a third 

 of a hollow ball. To do this, the petals must be six in 

 number ; broad at the ends, smooth at the edges, and the 

 divisions between the petals scarcely to show an inden- 

 ture. 2. The three inner petals should set close to the 

 three outer ones, and the whole should be broad enough 



