104 On I he Cvltivation of the Tulip. 
Plants treated in this mamier, always appear liealthy and ^■igorov^s, 
and the blossoms are much liner than are produced upon old plants, 
that have been cut down and treated in the usual manner. 
All my spare old plants are finally turned out into the open borders, 
and tlower admirably ; and from being so very dwarf and bushy, they 
are very suitable for the purpose. 
I am, Gentlemen, &:c. 
July 6th, 1831. George Harrison. 
Articlk Y.—Oh the Cidtivatioti of the Tulip. By Mr. 
John Revkll, of Pitsmoor, near Slieffield. 
Gentlemen, 
As my article on the culture of the Auricula, seems to have 
met with your approbation, and found a place in the pages of your Mag- 
azine, I again lay before you a few remarks on the Culture of the Tulip, 
which, if you think worth insertion, are entirely at your service. 
1 may perhaps be excused if I digress a little from the subject in 
question, and commence the present paper with a short account of the 
cultivation of that flower, from the time of its introduction into this 
country. It is considered to be a native of the Levant, and is very 
common in Syria and Persia, and according to Gesner, was brought lo 
Europe in 1559, and was cultivated in England by James Garnett, as 
early as 1 577. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, it became 
an object of particular interest in the Netherlands — nay, to such a height 
had the passion for fine Tulips arrived in 1637, that at a public auction, 
which took place at Alkmaar, in Holland, 120 Tulip-roots were sold for 
no less a sum than £7875, and one sort alone, called the Viceroy, cost 
the purchaser £190. The taste for Tulips in England appears to have 
arrived at its climax about the end of the seventeenth and beginning of 
the eighteenth centuries, after which time the study of Botany began to 
gain ground, and in a few years had obtained the complete ascendancy. 
The Tulip, however, still continued to be cultivated to a great extent, both 
in Holland and England, by the amateur florists, and to this day, like the 
Auricula and some other flowers, it is held by them in great estimation, 
so much so, that a noted modern writer on these subjects, remarks, that 
a moderate collection of choice bulbs cannot be purchased for a sum 
much less than £ 1 000 at the usual prices 
Tulips are divided by florists into three Classes, viz: 1st. Bi/bhcmnis, 
such as have a white groutid, variegated with purple, the edges well fea- 
thered, the leaflets of the perianthemum erect, and the whole forming a 
well shaped cup; — as Bicnfait, Washington, Incomparable, Baguet, &;c. 
2nd. Bizarrcfi, having a yellow ground^ variegated with scarlet, purple. 
