72 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
stantinople, blooming, in the middle of winter, in- 
termingled with the hyacinth and the narcissus, 
and could not sufficiently admire their beauty. 
The name given to it by Europeans is supposed to 
originate, in a corruption of the Persian word dul- 
bend, the muslin head-covering adopted by the 
Mahometan nations, which we have transformed 
ioto turban. In a Persian of rank this article of 
dress is not unlike the swelling form of the Tulip. 
Moore, in his " Veiled Prophet," alludes to this 
resemblance : — 
What triumph crowds the rich Divan to day, 
With turban'd heads of every hue and race, 
Bowing before that veil'd and awful face, 
Like tulip-beds of different shape and dyes, 
Bending beneath the invisible west wind's sighs! 
On their first introduction into Europe, Tulips 
became especial favourites of the cultivators of 
flowers. From Vienna they soon spread in Italy, 
and were sent in 1600 to England. Eleven years 
later they were first seen in France, in the garden 
of the learned Pieresc, at Aix, in Provence. In 
Holland, about the middle of the seventh century, a 
real mania for possessing rare sorts seized all classes 
