148 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



by the contrast, the anthers stand out on the clear bright filaments ; even 

 a small base is by no means so effective as a large circle of white or 

 yellow. 



Many critics of the fancy object to the importance assigned to purity ; 

 they profess to like a pale blue base at times, at any rate they consider 

 such flowers should be judged on their merits and not disqualified off- 

 hand. But the good is ever enemy to the best ; only the pure flower can 

 show the Tulip at its highest pitch of development ; and in his efforts to 

 realise the ideal he carries in his mind the florist rightly refuses to put 

 up with a quality, which though passable in an individual, would be 

 intolerable in the race. To admit a stained flower would be a defection 

 from the path of perfection in order to reap a temporary advantage, a 

 defection all the more unnecessary because of the numbers of brilliantly 

 pure varieties which exist. And after the eye has become trained among 

 Tulips, and learned to enjoy the contrast offered by the pure base, any 

 stain then becomes intolerable and even violently unpleasant. The 

 photograph of breeders (fig. 55), two pure and two stained, shows some- 

 thing of the superior effectiveness of the clear base, and the flamed 

 flowers (fig. 56), of which a photograph looking right into the bloom has 

 been attempted, will give an idea of how the base sets off the marking. 



Marking. — Assuming that the form of the flower is good and its 

 purity undoubted, its merit is then judged by the marking, of which, as 

 has already been indicated, two types exist, the feathered and the flamed 

 state. Fig. 57 shows a photograph of a number of finely feathered petals, 

 from which it will be seen that the marking must be confined to the 

 edge of the petals. A good feather should form a finely pencilled edging 

 round the margin of the petal, broader at the top than at the sides. The 

 width of the feather varies in different varieties : it may be narrow or broad, 

 but it should be regular and continuous, should neither "skip " at places, 

 nor run too deeply down the centre of the petal, though a single narrow 

 stripe is sometimes seen. The most common faults in a feathered flower 

 are a want of precision in the markings, the occurrence of scratchy 

 streaks of colour in other parts of the petal, worst of all perhaps is a 

 streak of solid colour running from the base to the edge of a petal. 

 The marking should be firm and boldly pencilled ; an undecided flushed 

 outline is a great defect, as also is the occurrence of two shades of colour 

 in the marking, when it is known as "grizzled; " a delicately pencilled 

 outline is also preferred to one flatly laid on or " plated." Figs. 50, 53, 

 and 54 show finely feathered blooms : in fig. 50 the photograph looks 

 more directly into the blooms ; on the left is rather a heavy plated bloom ; 

 on the right the feathering is better pencilled, but rather too light at the 

 tips of the petals. The feathered state is the one most difficult to obtain 

 in a state of perfection, and though the true enthusiast perhaps considers 

 that the flamed state shows the Tulip at its best, a first-rate feathered 

 flower is more taking at first sight, and is very much rarer. While there 

 are many flamed varieties which can be trusted to " come good " year 

 after year, a large collection must often be scanned with great care to 

 get together two dozen feathered blooms fit for exhibition. And here it 

 may be explained that the markings of the Tulip are very inconstant, 

 and even the successive flowers from the same bulb are subject to great 



