FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS OF THE SHOW TULIP. 



125 



FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS OF THE SHOW TULIP. 



By James W. Bextley, F.R.H.S. 



This subject may be looked at from two points of view, that of the 

 specialist or Tulip amateur and that of the garden lover, and it will be 

 best in my remarks to keep these distinct. Before one speaks of the 

 future development of the flower it will be useful to consider what are 

 its present faults, and in what it falls short of the unattainable standard 

 of perfection in both cases. 



The great fault of the Show Tulip from the specialist's point of view 

 is the extreme inconstancy of the position and quantity of the marking 



Sir Joseph Paxton Masterpiece 

 Fig. 31. — Feathered Flowers. 



colour. A certain amount of inconstancy is a necessary part of the 

 interest its votaries take in it, for if Tulips could be grown to bloom as 

 reliably as Daffodils, for instance, we should not care very much about 

 them; for the joy of getting them in the condition our souls love would 

 not be so keen as it is now that we have this inconstancy to consider. 

 But it must be admitted that there is rather too much of this joy of 

 uncertainity, and it would encourage the spread of the cult if it could be 

 minimised considerably. As an instance of the magnitude of this 

 drawback I may say that I have seen well-grown collections of over a 

 thousand blooms of good varieties from which it has been impossible to 

 cut twelve specimens to worthily compete for the first prize at the 



