100 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that I shall easily incur it again in treating of the Tulip, as 

 another classical flower of the florist, strictly so called. I offer 

 no apology for our aim and work with our special flowers. I 

 will only say that the results are much more Nature's work than 

 ours, whilst in a "natural selection " we have each our share. 

 It is very natural, and merely another version of " the survival 

 of the fittest," that the florist should strive for and preserve 

 those richest beauties of form and colouring which, but for his 

 pointed endeavours, would still be lying latent within the 

 capabilities of the plant. Rules and lines that never look harsh 

 .and hard, except perhaps in print and diagram, have mainly 

 been laid down after, and not before, the flower itself has led up 

 to them, or has even gone beyond them, and given us a higher 

 standard than we ourselves had hitherto set up. Features, now 

 disallowed, have come by their exclusion gradually. They first 

 became weak points, then faults, because the flower itself has 

 made them so. The notched petal of the self Auricula, the 

 spot and bar upon the purity of the Picotee, and the stained 

 base of the Tulip were all of them faults that grew graver by 

 degrees as the flowers rose superior to them. 



I do not propose to enter into the question of the origin of 

 the florist's Tulip beyond saying that it is considered to be a 

 descendant of Tulipa Gesneriana. I do not know how far that 

 species varies in wild life, so as to afford any forecast of the 

 variety in colours of the " ground " and markings that our forms 

 of it possess. Tulipa Gesneriana, once shown at the Royal 

 National Tulip Show as the original of our beautiful white- and 

 yellow-ground classes, was a bright red self. In habit of 

 growth, and time of flowering, the florist's Tulip corresponds 

 with this species, but exhibits a wondrous variance from it in 

 every property of form and marking that a Tulip can possess. 

 In the original type, we see every feature the absence of which 

 from the classic forms of the flower adds so much to their 

 purity, brilliance, richness, and grace. There is the inky base 

 which clouds the eye like an eclipse, and there are the stained 

 filaments, which when pure, add so much to the distinctness of 

 the bold black anthers. 



It will be necessary to state as briefly as I can, the classifica- 

 tion, points, and peculiarities of this most famous florist's flower, 

 which beyond a generation back has probably had more time 



