528 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND vOTTAQE GARDENER. 
[ Jane 80, 1887 
culture we have found to be of the easiest when we happen to hit upon 
the suitable spot. It is no exception to the other Borageworts of this 
class, and will not stand damp or stagnant moisture at any season, 
especially during winter. This is just the time when they are gene¬ 
rally lost, and all because care has not been taken to keep them com¬ 
paratively dry during this season. Of five plants put out three years ago 
only one has suffered, and this in the neighbourhood of London, where 
the fogs, &c., are most destructive to plant life. One of those left is 
over 2 feet in diameter, and the others are in excellent health, though 
not so robust. We choose the highest and driest positions we could find 
fully exposed to sun ; and to insure thorough drainage built up small 
rocky mounds a foot or so high, and planted on the top. 
In this way we have had one of the grandest displays of large 
glistening golden flowers we have ever seen, coming at a time, too, 
when flowers, especially this season, were comparatively scarce, and con¬ 
tinuing until now in full beauty. It is an excellent plant for cutting ; 
the blooms last a considerable time in water, and its charming drooping 
habit, well represented in the accompanying figure, gives it quite a 
unique character among its fellows. The effect of a mound covered with 
its large clusters of gold and curiously starry haired leaves is very 
imposing. We make no choice of soil, and our plants do well in 
ordinary garden ground, as well as brick and lime rubble. We give 
plenty of water during the growing season, and cover with large 
squares of glass from October until the beginning of March. 
It rarely, if ever, ripens seed, but is easily propagated by cuttings, 
taking them off in autumn with a heel, and keeping them in a dry pit 
where frost is excluded. It is a native of open hills in Tauria, as well 
as on the mountains of the Caspian Caucasus. A new one has been in¬ 
troduced lately, and that has flowered in the rockery at Kew und r the 
name of Onosma bracteata. It belong.? to the Himalayas, and is found 
on rocks at elevations of 8000 to 9000 feet. It has flowers almost as 
large as O. taurica, but instead of golden are deep crimson, and ex- 
tremelv striking and effective in large groups. It appears to require 
much the same treatment as 0. taurica.—D. 
ON TULIPS. 
[By MR.Folman Y OOY, of Haarlem (Holland]. Read at a meeting of the Horticultural 
Club, June 14th, 1887.] 
(Continued from page 515.) 
The late Tulips (also called fancy Tulip3—Tulipea d’Atnateurs) is the 
class wlrch has created the greatest and most important sensation during 
the period that Tulips have been introduced into the floricultural world, 
and it is this class which has had ever since its introduction most of the 
ambition and love of florists and fanciers. This class has received for more 
than 200 years all the care and attention that could possibly be bestowed 
upon a plant, net only by the Dutch florists, but by every skilled gardener 
throughout the civilised world. 
The Tulipa Gesneiiana, brilliant scarlet with black cent e, is probably 
the Moth r Tulip from which all the many hundreds of different varieti s 
have originated in almost every shade of colour from pure white to the 
darkest crimson. This is an importation from Asia Minor, the Caucasus, 
Calabria, and Central Itily. Conrad Gesmr, a Swiss naturalist, in whose 
honour it was named, mentioned this Tulip first, and published a descrip¬ 
tion of the same, accompanied by a drawing, in 1559. This gentleman 
obtained it first in a garden at Augsburg, where it had been grown from 
seed brought there from Constantinople. Ir. was first flowered in England 
by Mr. James Garres, an apothecary in 1577. Of this class of single late 
Tu'ips there is almost an endless variety. I must also mention that the 
amateurs and Tu ip fanciers in England have also contributed largely during 
the last eighty years to the very great improvements among the fancy 
Tulips. Notwithstrndiog the mania of former days (of which I wish to 
speak later on] has safely p ssed over, I at present keep over 1800 varieties 
of this splendid flower. When I was a young man, nineteen to twenty 
years old, I was apprenticed with the late Mr. Henry Groom, at that time a 
nurseryman in Walworth, which gentleman used to keep a most beautiful 
collection of Tulips of English raising, of which he was in the habit of 
opening a private exhibit ou every year, to wlrch the nob lity and gentry 
reti ing in or about London were invited by private cards, and which many 
thousands of ladies and gentlemen came to see and admire. 
The charact r of a good Tulip consists in the novel y of the sort and in 
its peculiar marking of col mrs, either feathered or blotched, with a pureness 
at its interior base. The ground colour should be clear and distinct, 
whether white or yellow. The petals should be of a fbm substance, not 
withering soon by the action of the sun, but keeping their true cob u ing 
unwithered for at least ten to fourteen days. These late or fancy Tulips 
which have been so much admired by many gen< rations, have been grown 
from seed by thousand- 1 , and the result of this has been the acqmsition of 
many superb varieties, at first in Holland and Belgium and later on also in 
England. There is a singularity in Tulips which belongs to no other flower, 
and which, as experience shows, affords an extraordinary inducement to 
lovers of flowers for their cultivation and improvement. The seedlings 
generally when they first bloom produce flowers without any stripes or 
markings, but with a yellow base, the upright portion of the petals being 
self-coloured brown, ted, purple, scarlet, or rose. In this state, when they 
have been grown for years without variation, they are called breeders or 
mother Tulips. These are planted every year until they break into stripes, 
when if the markings are fine or different from any one known they receive 
names, and are taken up in the existing collectims. It is often so many 
years before they break, and the multip ication in the breeder state is so 
rapid, that the border soon becomes fi led with this self-coloured variety. 
Each Tulip grower who has broken seedlings claims, and has a perfect right, 
to give it a name ; but some confusi m is naturally brought on, because of 
the fact that different names have been given to those that have brokm 
almost exactly al ke. In a bed of a hundred seedlings it is not probable 
that any two will be very nearlv a ike in their markings, which uncertainty 
adds greatly to the charms of Tulip cultivation. The hope of obtaining 
something new in the markings and pencilling is a sulfiiient stimulant for 
the f-nthusiast to persevere in his labour of love until he has found one quite 
woithy of a name. Another singular feature in the Tulips is that after it 
breaks it ever remains the same, and never returns to its self colour again. 
The show or fancy Tulips are divide 1 into three classes :— 
1st. Bybloemen or Violets, such as have a white ground variegatid with 
purple or violet, the edges well feathered, the petals erect, and the whole¬ 
forming a perfeit cup. 
2nd. Bizarres having a yellow ground variegated with rose, scarlet, 
purple, or violtt. 
3rd. Boses with white ground colour variegated with rosy red, pink, or- 
soft rose. 
The properties of a good Tulip flower are as follows :— . 
1st. The cup should form, when quite expanded, from half to a third of 
a round ball. To do this the petals must be six in number, broad at the- 
ends, smooth at the edges, and the divisions between the petals must scarcely 
show an indenture. 
2nd. The three inner petals should set closely to the three outer ones,, 
and the whole should be broad enough to allow of the fullest expansion- 
without quartering, as it is called, or exhibiting any vacancy between the- 
peta's. . 
3 d. The petals should be thick, smooth, and st'ff, and keep their form.- 
well. 
4th. The ground colour should be clear and distinct, whether white or 
yellow. The least stain, even at the lower end of the petals, renders a* 
Tulip of less value. 
5th. Whatever be the disposition of co’ours or marks upon a Tulip,, 
all the six pet-ls should be marked alike, and be therefore perfectly/ 
uniform. . . 
6 h. The fea'hered flowers should have an even close feathering all 
round, and whether narrow or wide, light or heavy, should reach far enough- 
round the petals to form, when expanded, an unbroken edging. 
7th. If the flower has any marking besides the feathering at the edge it 
should be a bold mark down to the centre, but not reaching the bottom of 
tne cup. This mark must be similar in all the six petals. 
8th. Flowers not feathered, and with the flame only, must have no> 
marks on the edge of the flowers. None of the colours must break to the 
edge. The colour may b; disposed in any fo m so that it be perfectly 
uniform in all the petals, and does not go too near the bottom. 
9th. The c flour, whatever it may be, must be dense and decided, whether- 
it be delicate and light or bright or dark ; it must bi distinct in its outline- 
and not shaded or flushed. 
10 h. The height should be 18 to 36 inches. The former is right for the 
outside row in a bed, and the latter is right for the highest row. 
11th. The purity of the whole and the brightness of the yellow should! 
be permanent—that is to say, should stand UDtil the petals actually fall. 
Aftir I have pointet out the pleasure and ambition which the culture 
and improvement of Tulips has given to so many admirers of Nature 
through many generations, I can hardly overlook the wonderful excitement 
of which this at first quiet and innocent pleasure and trade was the- 
precur.-or in past ages, and I presume that some information about this- 
extravagant trade, or rather foolish speculat.on, may prove agreeable and 
interesting to some of the members. I have endeavoured to procure every 
possible informa ion od this subject, for which I have taken the trouble or 
searching tlrough all the old libraries, as well in the old documents of the 
city of Haarlem as in those of private property, but I am Borry to say thak 
my gatherings have not been so successful as I had expected, while it 
appears that very little in detail has been noted down of taese remarkable- 
times. . . 
The best information on this subject which I have been able to find is in 
a little book containing three different dialogues on Flora’s rise and decline,, 
printed and publi-h d by Johannes Marshoorn, printer, residing at that time- 
at Marckt, in Haarlem, in 17c4. It appears that what has been published 
after that date on this subject has all been obtained from this book, which 
seems to have been the only source for information in this respect. The 
city of Haarlem was at the time I speak of very famous for the manu¬ 
facture or handweaving of various goods, which were mostly intended for 
export to India and other foreign countries, while the weaving by steam/ 
power now in use was at that time quite unknown. _ • 
It appears that these weavers, who were well-to-do citizens, during their 
holidays and Sundays, and all recreation days, amused themselves and found- 
great pleasure by growing flowers, for which purpose they possessed small 
gardens juBt outside the city, wfith little summer houses for shelter in rainy 
weither and to store away tbeir garden tools. 
The very spot on which my offices and warehouses in Haarlem now 
stand, and the nursery in the back of it, used to be the site of thirty off 
these gardens, where on a holiday these people visited each other, played 
at marbles, and took a great delight in the growing of flow- rs to their taste. 
Among ihese quiet and honourable people Tulip growing appears to 
have at first originated, and has gone on for several years without being 
much noticed ; but the seedlings of Tulips, and the breaking of flowers into- 
a variety of fine colour, gave an interesting stimulus to this sort of fancy, 
and brought on a litl le trade among them of noveliieF. And by the intro¬ 
duction now and then of more wealthy citizens among these fanciers, this 
trade became more and more popular, until in the year 1033, when the trade 
in Tulips became so extravagant that it ruined thousands of people, and which, 
was at last so very much taken up by all classes in society that at the end, 
of the fourth year Government found it expedient to interfere. 
As to he great cause of this famous trade and wild speculation which- 
sprang up in Holland in the year 1634 there is no publication which gives a- 
decided answer, but it is more than probable that the great impulse to this- 
extravagance has come from Paris, where,in the ye ir 1632, a fa hion amongst 
ladies sprang up among the nobility and wealthy classes of society to wear 
Tulip flowers of the most beautiful colours on the left side of the bosom. 
Tulips were at that time rather novel and scarce, and consequently very 
co-tly, which may have led to it that they were used 1 ke diamonds and other 
precious stones, so as to sati-fy the wea thy class of people in their love for 
show or pomp, whioh has at all times been found among human society. 
This fashion soon exhausting the stock of Tulips in hand sent up 
their value to very high prices, when tradesmen and speculators, finding 
