TULIP. 



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consider the most desirable for garden decoration. Each 

 person who has broken one thinks he has a right to give 

 it a distinctive name, without considering whether 

 others have not produced varieties similar, if not identi- 

 cal, so that there may be under cultivation many varie- 

 ties with different names that are one and the same 

 thing. This causes great confusion in nomenclature, 

 the same as exists in all florists' flowers. Another inter- 

 esting peculiarity which hardly belongs to any other 

 flower, is the great uncertainty of their markings ; for 

 although we may have twenty of one kind in a bed, 

 scarcely two will come nearly alike ; but after they have 

 once broken they never after change, the increase always 

 bearing the same marks. This uncertainty gives more 

 than half the charm to Tulip cultivation, or, rather, to 

 the production of new varieties. 



The ideal of a first-class late Tulip has, by common 

 consent, been thus minutely specified : The stem should 

 be strong, elastic and erect, growing to about thirty 

 inches above the surface of the bed. The flower should 

 be large, and composed of six petals. These should pro- 

 ceed a little horizontally at first, and then turn upwards, 

 forming almost a perfect cup, with a round bottom, 

 rather widest at the top. The three exterior petals 

 should be rather larger than the three inner ones, and 

 broader at their base ; all the petals should have per- 

 fectly entire edges, free from notch or serrature. The 

 top of each should be broad and well rounded ; the 

 ground color of the flower at the bottom of the cup 

 should be clear white or yellow ; and the various rich 

 colored stripes, which are the principal ornament of a 

 fine Tulip, should be regular, bold and distinct on the 

 margin, and terminated in fine broken points, elegantly 

 feathered or penciled. The center of each leaf or petal 

 should contain one or more bold blotches or stripes, 

 intermixed with small portions of the original or breeder 



