June 14, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE ANL COTTAGE OARDENER. 
493 
from the form certificated at the previous meeting by the rosy tint 
running through the flowers, and the more confluent markings. 
AntliuHum De Smetiamim (Linden).—An Anthurium with spathes 
of the style of A. Andreanum but smaller, dark scarlet, polished and 
irregular surface, the spadix white. 
Styrax Ohassia (J. Veitch & Sons).—A small Japanese tree with 
large roundish irregularly toothed leaves 8 to 9 inches in diameter, the 
flowers pure white ; petals five, acute, in racemes G to 8 inches long. 
Jtammidia 2 >V>‘e>iaica alba (Paul & Son).—A variety with pure white 
or very pale blush flowers, a pretty contrast to the ordinarj' purple 
type. 
Begonia Cajnellla (J. Laing & Son).—A handsome double Tuberous 
variety with full symmetrical flowers, rich bright scarlet. 
Begonia II. Adcoclt, (J. Laing & Son).—One of the rosette-formed 
double Tuberous Begonias, of good shape, and dark scarlet in colour. 
Sarracenia William.n (B. S. Williams).—A bold plant, the pitchers 
very large, the lips 6 inches broad, rounded, veined with dark red on 
green, as also is the tube. 
Begonia J/r.?. ir. B. Miller (H. Cannell & Sons). — A fine double 
Tuberous Begonia with mauve creamy salmon-coloured flowtrs of 
capital shape and substance. 
Pyrethrums (Kelway).— Beatrice, single, deep rosy crimson, broad 
florets ; 3[eteor, double, dark crimson ; and Wega, double, yellowish 
centre, pale blush ray florets, peculiar. 
Odontoglossvm Ilalli magnijicmn (H. M. Pollett, Esq.).—An un¬ 
commonly fine variety, the flowers having broad petals and sepals, 
yellow, boldly marked with brown. 
Scientific Committee.— Present, Mr. A. D. Michael, G. Murray, 
J. O’Brien, H. N. Eidley, Prof. Scott, Prof. Church. Prof. Church in 
the chair. 
Mr. Linden (Brussels) sent for exhibition a plant of Dendrobium 
macrophyllum, var. Bleichroderianum, from New Guinea. A botanical 
certificate was proposed by Mr. O’Brien and seconded by Mr. H. N. 
Eidley. Mr. J. Douglas exhibited a plant of Oncidium, introduced with 
Odontoglossum triumphans. It was referred to Mr. Eidley for name. 
Mr. Wolley Dod sent young leaves of a Weeping Ash which had 
turned black at the base of the petiole, and fallen off. He thought it 
might be due to drought, and the matter was referred to Mr. Murray 
and Mr. Michael. Mr. Wolley Dod also sent an abnormal flower of 
Campanula Allioni (Yillars) with a double corolla, a sport of a typical 
plant. The Hon. and Eev. J. T. Boscawen sent two Primroses with phyllo<Iy 
of the calyx. Mr, Eidley exhibited two flowers of Catasetum macro- 
carpum, from a plant obtained bj^ him in Pernambuco, and flowered by 
Mr. Moore of Glasnevin Gardens. Mr. Veitch exhibited the flowers of 
a series of Ehododendrons, showing the effect of crossing with E. Teys- 
manni. 
Lily Diseane. —Mr. Murray, to whom specimens of diseased Lily 
etems were referred at the last meeting, reports that from fresh speci¬ 
mens sent hini by Mr. Lewis Castle he h.as been able to determine the 
■disease, which is caused by Ovularia elliptica, and an account of it by 
Eev. M. J. Berkeley may be found in the Qardener's Chronicle, 1881, 
p. 340. 
Gentiana acauUs Yarieties. —Mr. Scott reported on the abnormal 
flowers of Gentiana acaulis, which bad five spongy outgrowths on the 
corolla, corresponding in position to the petals. The microscopic struc¬ 
ture showed that they were due to excessive superficial growth of the 
external tissues, especially the epidermis. The outgrowths showed 
large irregular intercellular spaces. At many places they had coalesced 
so as to form closed cavities lined by epidermis. When vascular 
bundles were present, the position of scylem and phloem was variable. 
The upper end of each outgrowth was flattened, and here the bundles, 
though generally concentric, showed an approximation of the scylem 
towards the upper surface. There was no evidence that these abnor¬ 
malities were caused by insects, but if so, the regularity of the out¬ 
growth shows that their attack must have taken place at an early age. 
Council Meeting. —At the Council meeting in the afternoon a 
Sub-Committee was appointed to consider the arrangements of the 
Society for 1889, and more especially to consider certain pioposals made 
by Mr. Veitch in regard to appointing a Botanical Lecturer to deliver 
short popular addresses to the Fellows, and other matters of importance 
and interest. It was decided to ask certain members of the Stock 
Exchange to form a Committee to work in co-operation with the 
Society. The question of the early revision of the byelaws was taken 
into consideration, and a letter from the solicitors was lead promising 
the revised copies at .an early date. The suggestions of the Fellows’ 
Committee in regard to Local Secretaries were adopted. 
Forty-two candidates were elected Fellows, and Messrs. John Gardner 
and James Harris were elected Associates. 
THE FLOEISTS’ TULIP. 
Time was when the gorgeous late-flowering florists’ Tulips were much 
grown round London. A quarter of a century ago it was possible to see 
small beds in the rear of some of the houses on or near the Walworth 
and Camberwell Eoads on the south side of the Thames ; also at 
Clapham, Brixton, Hackney, Clapton, Holloway, and other suburbs of 
the metropolis. Jo’nn Edwards of Holloway, and the brothers Williams 
of the City, were noted growers in those d.ays. Groom, Goldham, Glenny, 
E. J. Lawrence, of Hampton ; S. M. Sanders, of Staines; Willmer, of 
Sunbury, were the leading cultivators in Middlesex. A little farther 
afield were Charles Turner, of Slough ; Joseph Hunt, of Wycombe ; E. 
H. Betteridge, of Abingdon ; and Eichafd Headly, of Shelford, near Cam¬ 
bridge. An exhibition was held annually in London or in some one of 
the southern counties, probably up to 1870 or thereabouts. We remember 
seeing one at the Crystal Palace in 1865, and a few years later another 
at Cambridge, at which Samuel Barlow won the cup for twelve blooms, 
which had licen regarded by some as a certainty for Eichard Headly ; 
and while the Tulip has advanced in point of variety, of beauty, and re¬ 
finement, not a grower remains in the county of Middlesex, once so 
strong in valuable collections. It would now be difficult to find a bed 
of rectified Tulips within fifty miles of London. 
The florists’ Tulip is quite distinct from the early varieties so largely 
used for the spring decoration of flower gardens. It is both later in 
blooming and taller in growth. In some general ch.aracteristics it 
appears to be allied to the well-known T. Gesneriana, and what a 
singular physiology it has ! The raiser from seed must wait five years 
before his seedlings blossom, and it matters not if his seedlings be raised 
from seed of feathered or flamed parents. When they first bloom 
they will, with very rare exceptions, bloom simply as self-coloured 
flowers. In this st.ate they are denominated by florists as breeder Tulips, 
and some of them are very beautiful. And they will bloom in this self¬ 
state season after season until now one and now another, in no rank of 
order or age, will break or “ rectify,” as it is termed, into either feathered 
or flamed flowers, or some form that might be said to combine the two. 
A singular process goes on, which has been well described by the Eev. F. 
D. Horner :—“ The breeder or mother colour is not simply driven or col¬ 
lected into beautiful markings on the rectified petals, but it disappears 
from the flower altogether as a mist or veil lifted off. The base colour 
floods the whole flower with its pure white or yellow, and a new and 
marvellous colour strikes in to feather or flame the petals.” A few years 
ago David Jackson, of Middleton, flowered a Tulip for the first time from 
seed which never reached the breeder stage, but appeared at once in the 
form of a beautiful feathered byblcemen. But it is of very rare occur¬ 
rence. When the breeders break they may take the feathered or the 
flowered form ; it is all a matter of uncertainty, and they may be good 
or bad. The handsomest and richest coloured breeders by no means 
produce the best rectified flowers ; in fact, the plainer and weaker 
colours not infrequently produce the richest rectified blooms. 
It is comparatively easy to distinguish the classes of Tulips when 
they are yet in the breeder state. The class to which they belong is 
determined by the base colour of the breeder. “ If the base is a circle 
of yellow the flower will be a bizarre ; if whity, a rose or byblmmen 
according to the body colour of the petal. Eoses break from breeders 
having the white, base, with pink, red, or scarlet self-coloured petals ; 
bybloemens from a white base, with lilac or slate-coloured petals. 
Bizarre breeders have reddish and yellowish brown, dull red and 
mahogany sort of colour on their breeder petal, and occasionally bright 
scarlet, wherein the flower will break into a red bizarre, a very lovely 
and more recent development.” The broken or rectified Tulips are 
divided into two main divisions, and these according to the ground 
colour as well as the markings upon the petals. The bizarres always 
have yellow grounds ; in their petals the markings are laid on in black 
and red, or in varying tints of brown difficult to describe. The bizarres 
are both the strongest and the showiest class. The rose and the bybloe- 
men are both white ground flowers, but they differ essentially in the 
character of their markings. The roses have a pure white ground, the 
petals marked with some shade of rose, red, or scarlet. This class has 
been described as “ the fairest and gentlest among Tulips, and as if in 
common consent to this nearly all the varieties bear feminine names.” 
The markings on the bybloemens range froth some shade of purple, from 
light lilac to all but black, and it is the class that is scarcest of good 
flowers. The foregoing classes are again divided into feathered and 
flamed flowers ; the latter is always feathered as well as flamed. The 
feather is laid on in beautiful .styles of peneilling round the edge only 
of the petal, but when a beam of colour also runs up the centre of the 
petal striking into the feather it is then a flamed flower. “ The feather¬ 
ing must not ‘skip,’ that is, bresk off anywhere round the petal edge 
before it naturally ceases near the base, nor the flame be scratchy, un¬ 
decided, or insufficient to strike to the feather. The base of the flower 
must be pure white or yellow', as the case may be, and the stamens, six 
in number, each with its bold black anther, must be as pure as the 
ground colour. The property of purity has been gained after very many 
years of careful work with seedlings, and is of the greatest importance. 
Each flower is perfect at six petals, and cannot be exhibited with either 
more or less, or the circular outline of the cup is spoiled. Petals are to 
be broad, smooth on the edge, level as possible on the top, and of fine 
polished surface and substance, and so bending upward from the base 
as to first form a good shoulder.” 
Such is a popular description of the florists’ Tulip. It is a flower 
full of interest; fascinating because of its rich beauty, and absorbing 
because it presents to the view of the vegetable physiologist certain 
singular phenomena that severely taxes his powers of interpretation. 
THE KOYAL NATIONAL TULIP SOCIETY. 
June 9th. 
The annu.\l Exhibition of the Society took place in The Garden's of 
the Manchester Botanical and Horticultural Society at Old Trafford, on 
the above date. The Society has now reached its thirty-eighth year, and 
Mr. Samuel Barlow, J.P., the President, exactly set forth the character 
of the present Tulip season 'when he said it was one of the most extra¬ 
ordinary knowm during that time. Fine and sunny wamr wmather, 
alternated -with leaden skies and a lo-w temperature, deepening to frost, 
