REPORT OF THE TULIP NOMENCLATURE COMMITTEE. 237 



II.— INTRODUCTION TO CLASSIFICATION OF GARDEN 



TULIPS. 



By A. D. Hall, M.A. 



The garden Tulip began to be cultivated in Western Europe towards 

 the middle of the sixteenth century. It came to us from the Turks, 

 with whom it had already been for a long time in cultivation. It is 

 supposed to have originated near Baghdad, and Turkish manuscripts 

 of the fourteenth century are known in which many varieties possessing 

 the special characteristics of the modern flower are enumerated. 

 When the Tulip reached Europe it was already made a garden flower, 

 presumably of composite origin, but the sources are quite lost, and none 

 of the species which have latterly been discovered in the East can 

 be fixed upon as the probable parents of the garden flower. A 

 composite origin seems to be indicated not only by the great range 

 of variation, but by the differences in the time of flowering which tend 

 to segregate garden Tulips into two main groups flowering with us 

 at intervals of nearly a month, by the presence or absence of yellow 

 pigment, and by the occasional occurrence of flowers possessing a strong 

 scent like that of T. sylvestris. A genetic classification of the garden 

 Tulips thus becomes impossible with our ignorance of origins, and 

 the only other scientific basis remaining would be one founded upon 

 colour. Four sources of colour may be traced. Firstly, in nearly all 

 Tulips the ovary is surrounded by a central blotch, formed by the 

 lower portions of each petal and approximating to a circle in shape, 

 of a different colour from the rest of the flower. This base is deep 

 blue or black in many forms, but it varies enormously in intensity, 

 and may be entirely absent, so as to leave a circle of pure white or 

 yellow. Only in a few of the true white or yellow selfs is the base 

 indistinguishable from the rest of the petal. The shape and extent of 

 the base may also vary considerably, though it is always symmetrical. 

 In speaking of the colour of the Tulip the base is not taken into account. 

 Secondly, the Tulip possesses a sap pigment, located in the cells of the 

 mesophyll only. This pigment may be white or yellow, and it is, ex- 

 cept for the basal colour, the only one present in the true white or yellow 

 selfs. Thirdly, there is present in the epidermis of many Tulips an 

 anthocyanin pigment, which varies through all shades of rose, red, and 

 purple. That this anthocyanin pigment is confined to the epidermis 

 may be easily ascertained by stripping the skin from the upper and 

 lower surfaces of any garden Tulip other than the self yellows or 

 whites, when the colouring will be found to have come off with the skin. 

 This anthocyanin pigment tends to become a little more intense 



VOL. XLI. R 



