THE TULIP MANIA IN HOLLAND/^ 
REGARDING ribbons, Charles Dickens 
sagfely remarks in the Christmas Carol 
that jthey are so cheap you can make a 
hravfe show with them for sixpence. 
The same-thing may be said no wadaya of tulips. 
So easily may they be procured, and with such 
little difficulty cultivated in our gardens that 
one can hardly understand how the bulb8 from 
which these gorgeous flowers spring could ever 
have commanded the price of precious stones- 
Yet such was the case in the land of tiif»l7Titch 
in the first third of the seventeenth century. 
Could Conrad Gesner have been ahle to fore 
cast the future and get a prophetic glimpse of 
the evils his praises of the flower he saw for 
the first time in the garden of Counsellor Her- 
wart were fated to bring upon his countrymen, 
(le would no doubt have kept his discovery to 
himself. 
Counsellor Herwart lived in Augsburg, and 
was famous for his collection of 'rare exotics. 
Among them were some brilliant flowers 
^^rown from bulbs sent him by a friend in Con- 
stantinople, where their beauties had long been 
appreciated. 
Gesner on his return home spread abroad the 
praises of this plant so effectually that in the 
{.'tfnv^e of the next few years tulips were much 
sought after by the wealthy, especially in Ger- 
many and Holland. Rich folk at Amsterdam 
did not begrudge sending direct to Constanti- 
nople for bulbs, and were quite willing to pay 
big Ices for them. 
As years went by the tulip continued to in- 
crease in reputation until it was as incumbent 
upon persons of fortune to have a collection of 
them as to keep a carnage. 
Nor was the interest in them confined to the 
wealthy. The rage for their possession soon 
spread to the middle classes of society, and 
merchants and shop-keepers, even of moderate 
means, began to vie with each other in the 
size or strangeness of their collections, and in 
the preposterous prices paid for bulbs. A 
trader at Harlaem was known to pay one-half 
of his fortune for a single root, not with the 
design of selling it again at a profit, but sim- 
ply to cultivate it in his own conservatory for 
the admiration of his friends. 
In explanation of this extraordinary interest 
in a single variety of plant, the following lines 
of Cowley may be quoted : 
The Tulip nest appeared, all over gay, 
But wanton, full of pride, and full of play; 
The world can't show a dye but here has ploc©. 
Nay, by new mixtures, she can change her fac«; 
Piirpie «na efoid ar© both beneath her caro. 
The richest ne6dlewa>*._^he loves to wear; 
Her only study is to pleaB&^*« 
And to outshine the rest in linery." 
But, poetic as this portrait is, theproseof Beck- 
mann probably gets nearer the mark. '* There 
are few plants." he says, which acquire 
through accident, weakness or disease, so many 
variegations as the tulip. When uncultivated, 
and in its natural state, it is almost of one 
color, has large leaves, and an extraordinarily 
long stem. When it has been weakened by 
cultivation it becomes more agreeable to tav- 
eyes of the florist. The petals are then paler, 
smaller, and more diversified in hue ; and the 
leaves acquire a softer green color. Thus thU 
masterpiece of culture, the more beautiful h 
turns, grows so much the weaker, so that with 
the greatest skill and most careful attention it 
can scarcely be transplanted, or even kept 
alive. " 
Any one familiar with the modern mania for 
orchid-growing and collecting must at once se^j 
the secret of the ol^-time craze for tulips, 
although it is not 8BAij to understand a whole 
people being infected "^ith it at once. 
Yet, true it ifcJihat"T5 WA tiiC : -3 am'*".:; 
the Dutch for the possession of rar^ varicuca 
was so greftt that the ordinary industries of the 
country fell into neglect, and the population, 
down to the lowest ranks, embarked in the 
tulip trade. 
Charles Mackay, to whom I am indebted for 
much of my information, states that priqes J 
rose rapidly until in the year 1635 persons ware 
known to invest a fortune of 100,000 florins in 
the purchase of forty roots I It became neces- 
sary to appraise the bulbs by their weight in 
periU, a peril being less than a grain, just ad 
*Tbis essay will form a chapter of " The Romance of Comoxerce,"' a charming book by Mr. Osley, to be pnb- 
la8he(i soou by Thomaa Y. Crowell & Co., New York.— Editor, 
