40 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Janniry 20,1£87. 
them and adopt such measures that conduce to their re¬ 
duction, one of these, and not the least important, being 
the exercise of sound judgment :n choosing sites for 
orchards.— R, Parker, Irnuney, Droitmch. 
THE FLORIST TULIP. 
(Continued from page 5 60, last vol.) 
On the permanent way of a railroad, no train can travel safely if 
there be an unnoticed obstacle on the line ; and so some readers of 
these papers might never arrive satisfactorily at the terminus of 
them, if I placed something on the line or left a rail up, in the sense 
of using technical terms, without an explanation to convey an idea 
or to carry a train of thought along without a breakdown. 
It will be well, therefore, to state what variations in the florist 
Tulip are signified by the special class names under which the 
different combinations of colour are known. The flower is 
divided by its colours into three great classes called Bizarres, 
Byblcemens, and Roses. These are the broadest distinctions there 
are. Rectified Tulips and breeders are only conditions under 
these ; and a flamed or feathered style of marking is only a sub¬ 
division in one or another of these. One of the classes is composed 
of such Tulips as have a ground colour of yellow, which varies 
much in shade ; while in the remaining two classes the ground 
colour is white, which ought to be, but is not always, of the utmost 
whiteness. 
The yellow-ground flowers are the Bizarres, (the odd one out). 
This is a very powerful class in superiority both of numbers and in 
qualities of excellence. The black and gold of such flowers as 
Masterpiece and Commander, and the red and gold of those like 
Orion and Dr. Hardy, have a very masterful effect upon a bed in 
bloom ; so that as far as a balance of colour is concerned, (though 
the florist makes no sacrifice for this sort of thing.) the Bizarres can 
afford to be in a minority to either of the others. Rich and warm 
and strong in colouring, they are the very sunshine of the bed, and 
•a powerful medium of contrast between their sisters, light and 
dark, of the white ground classes. Black is always a highly valued 
colour for the markings on a Bizarre Tulip, but a great many are 
feathered or flamed with shades of umber brown, or a sort of 
mahogany red not easy to describe, of which old Royal Sovereign 
(cumbered with several aliases bestowed on different breaks from 
its breeder) may be taken as a type. The work of such raisers 
as Thomas Storer, John Hepworth, and Luke Ashmole upon 
Bizarres containing red in their markings has been so great, that to 
.'their long patient labours we owe, if not the creation, yet the elevation 
■of the scarlet Bizarre into a class worthy of a name of its own, and 
as distinct from the Bizarres of black colours as are the violet 
blacks and scarlets of the white ground Bybloemens and Roses 
from each other. Coming now to these white ground classes, the 
one which is termed Bybloemen includes all Tulips feathered or 
flamed with shades of violet, light or dark, with blue-black or with 
chocolate brown. In these flowers, any shade of red in the marking 
is a weakness, as trenching upon the colour prerogative of the Roses. 
The violet of the Bybloemen cannot be too blue or too deeply in¬ 
tensified with black ; shades of red in it, foiming an amiable red 
■plum common in the Auricula, are an abomination in the 
Bybloemen Tulip, and culminate in a half-way flower known and 
not liked under the conglomerate name of Rosy Bybloemen. 
The Bybloemens, familiarly shortened down to Bybs, or by a 
-stretch of courtesy called Byblooms, are a most delightful class, 
the most removed perhaps of any from the ordinary type of Tulip, 
and they are also the most difficult class (a charm to the florist) in 
which to obtain flowers of surpassing excellence. To paint a fancy 
while the ice bears, the feathered Bybloemen is to me like the turn 
from “ inside back to outside forwards,” the beauty and difficulty 
of which, on any large scale, all good skaters can appreciate. The 
Bybloemens possess a very marvellous and attractive style of 
beauty, grave and cool and full of repose. When I think of Talis¬ 
man feathered—so rarely so seen—with long pencilled lashes of 
blue black round the pure white petals, or Mrs. Cooper (Board- 
man's No. 2) absolutely perfect with black coffee feathering round 
her great white cup, I say there is no hardy bulb to excel the 
florist’s Tulip, and no Tulip lovelier than the feathered Bybloemen. 
The remaining class of white ground flowers have bright red 
and scarlet markings, sometimes pinker in the beam of the flame, as 
bluer in that of the Bybloemen, or as the claret in some of the 
flamed Bizarres. This scarlet-and-white class bears the pretty 
English name of Roses, in allusion it may be to the colours in 
which they resemble the Queen Dowager of Flowers. (I may as 
well admit that the prickly Rose is by no means my favourite 
flower. I better love the graceful and grotesque in Orchids, to say 
nothing of my earliest love, the Auricula.) The Rose Tulip is the 
fairest of the fair, sprightly, brilliant, light, and graceful—the fairy 
of the Tulip bed—as the Bizarre is the Royalty of it, and the 
Bybloemen its solid strength. Rose Tulips generally bear some 
feminine name, as if in recognizance of their gentle power, and no 
Tulips are so winsome in the breeder form as many of the Roses, 
than which no Rose bud ever blushed more exquisitely. Loveliest of 
rose pink shades are the breeder forms of such as Lady Constance 
G-rosvenor, Mabel, Mrs. Barlow, and Baroness Burdett Coutts ; while 
in soft or glowing scarlets there are Annie McGregor and her sister 
Lucretia, Mrs. Lea, and Industry. Most of these break into 
brilliant feather and flame. Not all, as I said before, of lovely Rose 
breeders. But I will not raise the curtain. Growers in front know 
what is behind. 
To love the Tulip at all is to love it in the entirety of the 
triple alliance of Bybloemen, Rose, and Bizarre. We cannot say 
which form we like the best, if by that we are to say we like the 
others less. In this floral form of The Three Graces we cannot 
dissociate, disentwine one without destroying the harmony and 
beauty of the whole fair group.—F. D. Horner, Burton-in- 
Lonsdale. 
(T« be continued.) 
FORCING RHUBARB. 
Numerous methods are adopted for forcing Rhubarb, and it 
really would be a difficult matter to single out the best. It is such 
a simple operation to place the plants where they can have a little 
heat to excite growth, that the merest novice need not be instructed, 
and if anyone has a stock of roots, Rhubarb from December 
onwards may easily be h id. We note the remark of “ W. T.,” who 
advises that the roots should be out of the ground for some time 
before placing them in warmth. This advice is sound. When the 
plants are in course of preparation, plenty of room to develope the 
foliage and admit light and air is of moment. Free exposure to 
sun matures the roots in good time so that they become rested and 
ready for early work. Two of the best for general purposes are 
Prince Albert, for first supplies, and Victoria for succession. The 
means by which the best early Rhubarb (in private places) has been 
forced, according to my observation, was on the fermenting bed 
used in the centre of a vinery newly started ; with little trouble 
taken beyond syringing the Vines to moisten the rods, almost 
enough water falling therefrom to keep the Rhubarb in growing 
condition. The light and air admitted to the Vines were also shared 
by the Rhubarb, and we think the produce is better grown under 
such conditions than that which is kept close and dark. Some of 
the other means of raising Rhubarb are in warm cellars, outhouses, 
on the manure heap covered with pots and leaves, in Mushroom 
houses, under stages of hothouses, near boilers, in engine rooms, or 
similar positions. A good story has been told of a Scotch farmer 
who lost his stock of cattle by rinderpest, but unwilling to let all 
his buildings remain empty and unprofitable, carted in Rhubarb, 
and by means of a portable stove for heat grew immense quantities 
of fine Rhubarb. A baker within a mile of where I now write 
grows early Rhubarb for sale and for use in pastry, &c., behind his 
bakehouse, where there is plenty of heat for the purpose. I have 
seen very fine stalks turned out of these primitive quarters, and no 
doubt there is plenty of good produce at the present time. 
The old system of placing pots over the crowns, then a coating 
of warm manure or leaves to raise heat, is still practised, and where 
the Rhubarb bed is close to the manure yard and the covering can 
be performed by a minimum of labour, this old-established way is 
nit to be despised. While we make the forcing of Rhubarb in 
private gardens of so much importance, the whole work is insigni¬ 
ficant when balanced against that of the extensive market growers. 
It is more particularly to the economy and ingenuity practised by 
these cultivators I would now revert. The practice followed by 
one who grew plants, fruits, and cut flowers on an extensive scale 
for Covent Garden Market, and to meet the demands of a first-class 
West-end shop, are very distinct in my recollection. I was employed 
there, as a youth, and had to take a share of all kinds of work 
(rough and smooth) in the establishment. The extent of glass was 
enormous and well adapted for the purpose of market growing. 
Large quantities of an early red variety of Rhubarb were grown 
for the earliest supply. It was carted in from the fields during the 
early part of November and placed by the sides of the hot-water 
pipes under side stages where plants were forced for early cut 
flowers or to be carted by hundreds to market. Watering the plants 
met the wants of the Rhubarb by keeping the roots (which had 
old tan packed round them) in a healthy moist state. Sometimes a 
watering at a temperature from 80° to 90° was given to push 
forward growth. In December the produce was plentiful. The 
larger stalks were gathered each morning and placed in round 
baskets evenly and with due care, keeping them upright and all 
about the same size. The crimson stalks were very attractive in 
