378 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 25, 1894 
similarly circumstanced to the originator saw in it a valuable aid 
to the desirable object of a clean walk. I do not know if it is now 
in existence ; if not, it may sooner or later, like the fabled bird, rise 
again. Only those who have experience of a damp season in 
Ireland can be aware of the labour and the difficulty in keeping 
extensive walks presentable with the endless scuffling and raking. 
Whatever may be the value of chemical weed killers from an 
economical point of view to some employers they regard their 
use as objectionable, and to their wishes due consideration must 
be paid. 
In the course of a year’s work there are times of pressure which 
appear to overwhelm the man in charge. Work awaits on every 
side. The question is then how to economise the forces at his 
command, whether by distribution or concentration of his hands, 
can he best attain the object. The combined attack, where possible, 
wi’h the chief at the head, has by force of example special advan¬ 
tages. Appearances in this case go a long way. When workmen 
see him—who in times of yore kept the coat on his back, doff the 
coat, bend the back, as he cheerfully falls into line with them, it 
means much more than the physical help and master’s eye. Hard 
times they may be, and are felt to be, but “ Those who cannot 
have what they like, must learn to like what they have.” There 
is but little time for vain regrets. Employer and employe are 
brought into sympathetic touch in the desire of the one and 
endeavour of the other to keep up appearances.—E. K , Dublin. 
CYCAS EEVOLUTA FLOW^ERING. 
In the Jounial of Uorticulture for September 6th reference was 
made to a fruiting plant of Cycas revoluta, and an illustration of the 
seeds was published. We have since received from Mr. Thomas 
Hardcastle Sykes, Cringle House, Cheadle, a photograph of his male 
plant as reproduced in the accompanying illustration (fig. 58), with 
the following note—“ Eeferiing to the very interesting account of 
the seeding of the Cycas revoluta in your issue of Gth September 
(page 230), sent by Mr. Mackellar, of Abney Hall Gardens, I now 
enclose you a pho'ograph of the male plant showing the cone, which 
was 2 feet 5 inches high, and very handsome, of a rich old golden 
colour ; it has now died down. The plant is 9 feet through.” 
THE FLORISTS’ TULIP. 
[By James W. Bextley, Hon. Secretary to the Boyal National Tulip Society.] 
Introductory. 
The florists’, or as it has recently been called, the English 
Tulip, is a flower that is to most flower lovers of the present day 
practically unknown. Everybody knows the early Dutch Tulips 
as being bulbs that may be imported by the million, in order to 
produce, by forcing, untimely puny blooms to adorn the tables of 
restaurants, where they shrivel up in a few days, and are consigned 
to the dustbin. Everybody knows this Tulip, but the gorgeous 
flower that the Tulip grower means when he thinks of his favourite 
is a far different daughter of Flora. At the same time I do not 
wish it to be thought that the Dutch Early is a flower to be 
despised ; properly grown it is a brilliant addition to our gardens in 
the spring, and welcome on that account, but seldom indeed has it 
fair treatment after its arrival in this country. 
The Dutch Early is as a household drudge in the temple, but 
our Tulip queens it with the fairest there. With a wealth of 
colouring equal to any other flower she blends them with a purity, 
brilliance, richness, and grace that is surpassed by none. And yet 
it must be admitted that the culture of the Tulip has fallen into 
comparative obscurity, although it is not easy to find reasons for 
this sad state of things. Perhaps, as suggested by Mr. Douglas in 
his little work “ Hardy Florists’ Flowers,” the system of bedding- 
out tender plants such as Zonal Pelargoniums and Calceolarias 
having become popular, the taste for the Tulip along with many 
another florists’ flower declined. 
It may be that Tulip growers have them-elves much to an wer 
for. Until recently they have for many years done nothing to 
attract attention to themselves beyond holding the annual exhibi¬ 
tion of the Royal National Tulip Society, and as death is busy 
with them as with other men, it at one time seemed probable 
that in a few years they and the flowers they loved would be gone, 
and the results of their patient work of seedling-raising for ever 
lost. Such a fate seems to have actually overtaken the Ranun¬ 
culus. Where now are grown Ranunculi, such as Tyso and 
Lightbody raised, flowers exquisite in their delicate perfection of 
shape and colourings ? I fear the answer must be. Nowhere, 
and were it not for the portraits of a few of these beautiful 
flowers in the pages of the old “ Florist,” and possibly other 
similar publications, many of us would never have known to 
what a state of perfection the flower had been brought. 
What has happened to the Ranunculus might easily have been 
the fate of the Tulip ; but thanks to those who have, through 
many lean and hungry years, kept the Royal National Tulip 
Society alive, more prosperous days seem to be in store—at least 
there is apparent “a streaky dawn of better things,” and it is 
with the hope of hastening the welcome time that I presume to 
write on the subject, and to compile the descriptive catalogue of 
varieties that is intended to follow. I use the word presume, 
because I am well aware there are other growers of the Tulip more 
experienced than myself who would probably have done the work 
better. I am encouraged, however, to proceed by the assurance 
that I shall have the kindly assistance of most of our best culti¬ 
vators, and the sympathy of one and all. Besides, the help I shall 
get from my contemporaries I shall also make free use of the 
writings of the famous Tulip growers of the past, and I freely own 
my indebtedness to the late George Glenny, Dr. Hardy (of War¬ 
rington), C. L, Crook (London), John Slater (Manchester), J. F. 
Wood, Thos. Allestree, and many another whose contributions to 
the pages of those delightful old-time journals, “The Midland 
Florist,” “ The Florist,” “ The Gardeners’ Record,” and “ The 
Horticultural Cabinet,” I have found most useful and interesting. 
Chap. I.— History op the Tulip. 
The Tulip was introduced into Western Europe from Turkey 
about the year 1550. It is supposed to be a native of Persia, from 
whence it had been introduced into Turkey, and was cultivated in 
the gardens of Constantinople. It quickly became popular, and in 
the year 1577 made its appearance into England, where it was 
extensively grown in the neighbourhood of London for thirty or 
forty years, and a great number of new varieties were raised from 
seed. Parkinson, writing in 1629, enumerates 140 varieties, and 
goes on to say :— 
“ But to tell you of all the sorts which are the pride of delight there 
are so many, and, as I may say, almost infinite, doth pass my ability, 
and, as I believe, the skill of any other. There is such a wonderful 
variety and mixtures of colours in them that it is almost impossible for 
the wit of man to decipher them thoroughly and to give names that may 
be true, and several distinctions to every flower. Three score several 
.sorts of colour, simple and mixed, I can reckon up that I have, and of 
especial note ; and yet I doubt not that for every one of them there are 
ten others differing from them. But besides this glory of variety in 
colours that these flow’ers have they carry so stately and delightful a 
form, and do abide so long m their bravery, that there is no lady or 
gentleman of any worth that is not caught with this delight.” 
In a work by John Rea published in 1665, entitled “Flora, 
Ceres, and Pomona,” a catalogue of 184 varieties of Tulips is 
given ; in a second edition of the work published in 1676 the list is 
increased to 300 varieties. Although the Tulip is considered to be 
a descendant of Tulipa Gesneriana, it is most probable that the 
first Tulips introduced into Europe were already varied much from 
the wild type, for otherwise it could not have been possible in the 
comparatively short time to have raised the numerous varieties 
mentioned by Parkinson with their “ wonderful variety and 
mixtures of colours.” I doubt, moreover, whether the bright red 
self with its inky base, known now as 'Tulipa Gesneriana, is the 
type. My opinion is that the original Tulip must have had some 
yellow about it, that colour being the most persistent in the 
modern Tulip. 
That the Turks had already differing varieties before any 
Tulips were introduced into Europe is almfst certain, for in 
“Richard Hackluyt’s Voyages,” published in 1599, is an instruc¬ 
tion to a factor (nr what we should now call a supercargo) about 
to proceed to Turkey, from which the following is an extract :— 
“ And now, within these four years, there have been brought into 
England from Vienna, in Austria, divers kiiids of flowers called 
Tulipas, and those and others procured thither a little before from 
Constantinople by an excellent man called M. Carolus Clusius.” 
I will not inflict upon my readers the well-worn tale of the 
Tulipomania in Holland. It is indeed difficult to conceive how 
such a mania could seize upon a steady-going people like the 
Dutch ; still, we must remember that this madness was indulged 
in, not from any appreciation of the beauties of the flower, but 
from the hope of growing suddenly rich by speculation, and after 
all there was as much sense, or as little, in buying a “Semper 
Augustus” Tulip at £500 per bulb as we mederns di'play when we 
send a similar amount for shares in the "Wheel Gambler Mine, 
