110 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



others, who grow the dear old florist's Tulip, of long history in 

 the past, and associated with many cherished memories in us all. 

 Such days as there have been, in Tulip-growing, seem hardly 

 likely to come round again yet. Days when every county, and 

 many towns and even villages in each, had its Tulip Society. 

 Days of less distraction, both in business and in pleasure. Days 

 they were of magnificently high prices too ; though whether 

 such brave sums were always realised, any more than in the 

 mystery of music and songs, wherein the figure of the price 

 printed has not been the figure of the price paid, I cannot tell. 



The spirit of the old zeal and love is not fainter now. It is 

 less abroad, but not difficult to find by those who wish com- 

 panionship with it ; and I am glad to say that for the last few 

 years there is some perceptibly greater seeking after the florist's 

 Tulip. Many names once familiar in the Tulip-world lie buried 

 in the past, such as those of Groom, Goldham, Lawrence, 

 Turner, Headly, Norman, Betteridge, Hunt, and others of the 

 South ; and of Northern growers of the past, Dr. Horner of Hull, 

 Dr. Hardy of Warrington, late a President of the Koyal National 

 Tulip Society, and author of a standard work on " The Properties 

 of Form in the Tulip." Among others of the North, well known, 

 were Mr. W. Bentley of Roy ton, near Oldham, who knew all our 

 wild as well as florists' flowers, George Lightbody of Falkirk, 

 John Simonite of Sheffield, W. Willison of Whitby, J. D. Hextall, 

 J. Hepworth, T. Storer, Battersby, Ashmole, Lea, D. Jackson, 

 E. Martin, and many more. But among those I name are the 

 growers who have raised many of the best flowers we grow now. 



I think that, in Yorkshire, the greatest number of Tulip- 

 growers may be found in and around Wakefield, with whom I 

 connect such names of large, enthusiastic, and veteran growers as 

 my friends George Gill, William Mellor, Jesse Hardwick, and 

 others. In Lancashire, the neighbourhoods of Stockport and 

 Oldham, and the regions round about Manchester probably con- 

 tain the largest group of Tulipmen, among them my brother 

 florist and friend Samuel Barlow of Stakehill, President of the 

 Royal National Tuhp Society, who has " kept the thing together " 

 these many years with ever-kindly, generous, and guiding hand, 

 and has been a father-in- the-flower to many a younger grower, 

 myself among the number. 



Others of us, in this "home county" of York, are widely 



