MAY. 



85 



Henry. The Tulip is a native of the Levant, 

 and has been in cultivation nearly three hun- 

 dred years, and may be called the king of 

 florists' flowers, as no flower can claim equal- 

 ity with it, in the brilliancy of its endless com- 

 binations of all colors and shades. 



It appears to have been brought to Europe 

 from Persia, by way of Constantinople, in 

 1559; and in a century afterwards, to have 

 become an object of considerable trade in the 

 Netherlands, and a sort of mania among the 

 growers, who bought and sold single bulbs, at 

 prices amounting to three thousand dollars each, 

 and upwards ; in those days an immense sum. 

 The taste for Tulips in England was at its 

 greatest height about the end of the seven- 

 teenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. 

 It afterwards declined, and gave way to a 

 taste for rare plants from foreign countries. 



The Tulip, however, is still extensively cul~ 



