146 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Form. — The form aimed at is the perfect cup, a little greater 

 than a hemisphere when young, and not less than " the half of a 

 hollow ball " when fully expanded in the sunshine. Fig. 51 a and B 

 and fig. 54 A show what is admired, 51 a being about the shortest, and 

 54 a the tallest, that is desirable. To attain this perfect cup shape the 

 petals must be broad, gently rounded at the top, without point or indenta- 

 tion, and must themselves be portions of a sphere, so as to clip closely 

 together. Long narrow petals cannot form a cup or expand freely 

 without showing gaps, a very bad fault known technically as " quartering." 

 The gently rounded top is essential to a proper display of the marking ; 

 a Tulip with pointed petals may. be itself beautiful enough, e.g. the well- 

 known ' Golden Eagle ' ; but as the Florist's is fundamentally a marked 

 Tulip we must choose the cup shape which will best show the markings, 

 and therefore the rounded petal, which is required for the perfect develop- 

 ment of the chosen form. This is the real raison d'etre of the florist's 

 " laws " : they are not arbitrary conventions, but the formulating of certain 

 principles which will bring out the inherent properties of the flower to 

 their higher pitch of excellence. 



If the petals individually are not portions of a sphere they cannot fit 

 closely together ; many otherwise good varieties possess the grave fault 

 of throwing the three outer petals away from the inside three and making 

 something like a cocked hat instead of a cup. Fig. 53 b represents an old- 

 time variety, ' Count ' or ' Comte de Yergennes,' beautifully feathered, but 

 the outer petals are long and spoon-shaped, so that they stand quite 

 apart. a on the same figure represents another excellent feathered 

 flower, ' Bessie,' of a good enough shape when young, but when old or 

 overpowered by heat and sun it has a bad habit of reflexing the tips of 

 the outer petals, as shown in the photograph. 



Sometimes the petals are too much curved and form an ugly shoulder, 

 instead of springing in a gentle rounded curve from the stem. Fig. 54 B 

 shows a finely feathered bloom of ' Masterpiece ' with this great defect of 

 shape. In some blooms the defect of shape arises in the opposite way : 

 the base is too narrow, and the petals start from the stem like a funnel 

 rather than a wineglass ; ' Annie McGregor ' possesses this defect. 

 Some flowers are too globular, others like 1 Mabel ' curve the edges of the 

 petals inwards near the top ; others again, like 1 Chancellor,' may have a 

 good shape but open with difficulty, except in warmth or sunshine. In 

 all these cases the result is similar: the true cup is not found, and the 

 interior is more or less hidden from view. 



The pericarp should be bold and shapely, the stamens large and 

 conspicuous. 



Lastly, whether dwarf or tall, and the heights range from eight inches 

 to three feet or more, the stem should be sturdy enough to carry the cup 

 nobly erect. 



Purity. — The great feature which distinguishes the English from the 

 ordinary Dutch and from the ' Darwin ' Tulips is their " purity," the 

 possession of a clear, stainless circle of ground colour at the base of 

 the flower ; yellow in the case of the Bizarres, white in the Roses and 

 Bybloemen. The older forms of the Tulip, as may be seen in the common 

 garden variety known as T. Gesneriana, possess a dark blue blotch at the 



