24 
The Garden Magazine, September, 1920 
work, together with a good many old skits and smaller pamph- 
lets concerning those disastrous years. The Hyacinth mania 
died out and the inference is that this republication did what it 
was intended to do. 
As instances of how this flower has entered into ordinary liter- 
ature Joseph Addison’s letter in the Tatler for August 31, 1710, 
Edward Young’s poem, “The Universal Passion,” published in 
1725, and earlier still Jean de la Bruyere’s Characters, originally 
published in 1688 and frequently translated into English, may 
be mentioned. The last ref- 
erence is not very widely 
known, so I am going to 
quote the reference in full 
from the sumptuous English 
translation of Henri van 
Laun.of which three hundred 
copies were printed for Eng- 
lish and two hundred for 
American use in 1885. 
“The lover of flowers has 
a garden in the suburbs, 
where he spends all his time 
from sunrise till sunset. You 
see him standing there, and 
you would think he had 
taken root in the midst of his 
Tulips before his ‘Solitare’; 
he opens his eves wide, rubs 
his hands, stoops down and 
looks closer at it; it never 
before seemed to him so hand- 
some; he is in an ecstasy of 
jov, and leaves it to go to the 
‘ Orient,’ then to the ‘ Veuve’, 
from thence to the ‘Cloth of 
Gold’, on to the ‘Agatha,’ 
and at last returns to the 
‘ Solitare,’ where he remains, 
is tired out, sits down, and 
forgets his dinner; he looks 
at the Tulip and admires its 
shade, shape, color, sheen, 
and edges, its beautiful form 
and calix; but God and na- 
ture are not in his thoughts, 
for they do not go beyond 
the bulb of his Tulip, which 
he would not sell for a thou- 
sand crowns, though he will 
give it to you for nothing 
when Tulips are no longer in 
fashion, and Carnations are 
all the rage. This rational 
being, who has a soul and professes some religion, comes home 
tired and half-starved, but very pleased with his day’s work; 
he has seen some Tulips.” 
I T MAY be news to some that the Tulips so much admired 
by La Bruyere’s connoisseur would every one of them 
be striped — or to use the term of Tulipdom, “broken.” In 
those ancient days the plain or one colored flowers were of no 
account, and it was the aim and object of every one who grew 
T ulips from seed to get them broken as soon as ever they could. 
Now it is the reverse. Often have 1 heard wailing and gnashing 
of teeth when a third or the half of a valuable stock has suddenly 
“ broken.” Few people at the present day “go” for these parti- 
colored flowers. Mr. John Scheepers in the May number of this 
magazine offers Breeders, Darwins, Cottage and Lily-flowered 
Tulips. Mr. Chester Jay Hunt has a picture in his advertise- 
ment in the same issue of a border of Breeder and Darwin 
Tulips. The Rembrandtsand Bizarres are conspicuously absent. 
Facts are more eloquent than words, thus these omissions 
speak volumes. What are these "Breeder” Tulips that are 
coming so much into fashion? Strictly speaking they are Tulips 
with yellow or yellowish bases, which are still in their first or 
unbroken stage of life. All Tulips, except some pure yellow 
and some red ones, at some period take on the “broken” state, 
but it is altogether uncertain when that will be. It may be in 
two or three, or possibly not for twenty or thirty years. Dutch 
Breeders for the most part are dark in color in their unbroken 
state and it strikes me as 
strange why they should now 
be coming into fashion. 
I can well remember the 
days when no one would look 
at the brown Dom Pedro; 
whereas at present it is very 
popular and commandsa high 
figure. Herr Grullemans, the 
head of the Dutch Exporters 
Association in Holland, told 
me this last spring of the 
prices received in 1919 for 
his Breeders. For 300 beds, 
three feet wide by twenty- 
four long he got £3,000! The 
ups and downs in value in 
the world of Tulips are in- 
deed strange and unaccount- 
able. Before Hobbema (syn- 
onyms: American Lac and 
Le Reve) caught on in the 
States it might be had for 
about half a dollar or a trifle 
more per 100; afterward, and 
in the same year, it rose to 
about eight dollars for the 
same quantity. 
UT to go back to the 
striped or rectified Tu- 
lips; — themost popular strain 
at the present time is that 
known as Rembrandt. These 
are all broken Darwins and 
very beautiful some of them 
are. And perhaps the pendu- 
lum will swing some day in 
the opposite direction and 
fashion will say to them, 
“ Friends, go up higher.” In 
England we think we have 
the most perfect and beauti- 
ful strain of broken Tulips 
in the world. They have rounded petals, pure white or pure 
yellow bases, refined and even markings, no running of colors, 
and a shape which for the most part is neither too long nor 
too short. Sir Joseph Paxton, Mabel, Annie Macgregor are 
some of those to be found in all good collections. 
Time was when in certain parts of England every small 
town had its show. Competition was keen and journals like 
the Midland Florist were full of their doings. It would in- 
terest visitors to be shown the sort of flowers that have been 
“top dogs” at different periods. I fancy the oldest type of 
all are to be found in the earlies, and Admiral Reinier would 
be a good example. Then taller varieties came into vogue 
and for these perhaps the very beautiful Zomerschoon might 
be cited. 
Then for a still later period we might take flowers with 
rounder petals like that beauty, Pren’s Hendrik, or possibly 
Cherbourg, or Miss Doris Diggle; and last of all such English 
Tulips as Sir Joseph Paxton — this, by-the-bye, one of the 
AVAST (TULIP) CONGREGATION IN 
THE SHADE OF SCROOBY CHURCH 
A onetime Vicar of Scrooby was the father of William Brewster, dis- 
tinguished as leader of that Pilgrim band which sailed for these 
shores in May, 1620, in a risky little craft they called The Mayflower 
B 
