THE ENGLISH OR FLORIST'S TULIP. 



147 



base of the flower from which the pericarp and stamens spring ; and 

 though in many of the Dutch and Darwin Tulips this heavy colour is 

 replaced by a lighter shade, in the English Tulip there must not be any 

 suspicion of stain ; the ground colour should be of the utmost clearness 

 and brilliancy, and the filaments of the stamens must also be free from 

 any tinge of blue. The fundamental importance of purity was a doctrine 

 chiefly fought for and won by the southern florists in the first half of the 

 nineteenth century ; it had always been desiderated, but their action 

 rendered it indispensable, and many a well-marked favourite had to 

 disappear from the show table, because it would come foul or tinged at 

 the base. At the present time practically none but pure flowers are 

 grown, but some trace of original sin is still to be seen in many white 



A B 

 Fig. 52. — Flamed Flowers. (A) ' George Edward.' (B) ' Duchess of Sutherland.' 



ground varieties, which open with a cloudy yellow base, only bleaching 

 after a few days' exposure ; some Bizarres again show an indefinite green 

 shade or greasiness in their yellow base. A batch of seedlings will always 

 contain a large proportion of impure flowers, which should be at once 

 destroyed, root and branch, without mercy, however excellent the other 

 qualities they show. A want of purity is the great defect of those other- 

 wise excellent breeders, the ' Darwin ' Tulips ; it is true that many of 

 them have rather an ugly square shoulder, but in substance of petal and 

 shortness of cup they are excellent. There are, however, only two 

 varieties known to me, ' Loveliness ' and ' Zephyr,' which can be termed 

 pure. 



The value of purity lies in the great increase of brilliance given to the 

 flower by a wide circle of pure colour at its base ; the marking tells better 



