400 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
KoTeaber 1, 1894. 
Christmas or soon after, these carrying their blossoms well into the 
new year. 
C. insigne is not at all fastidious as to compost, the strong roots 
thriving in a mixture that would be fatal to many other Orchids. 
Equal parts of good fibry loam and peat with enough chopped 
sphagnum and potsherds or charcoal to keep the mixture open will 
grow it to perfection. Good drainage is essential, as few Orchids 
require so much water at the roots as this species when healthy. 
Fairly large pots must be used, as the flowers are more freely pro¬ 
duced when the plants are not often disturbed at the roots. 
A good deal of confusion exists with regard to the varietal 
names of this species, especially among the older kinds. This is 
owing to the custom so prevalent, especially among trade growers, 
of separately naming any that show the least variation from the 
type or existing varieties. C. insigne Chantini is a well marked 
form, but has several synonyms ; the pouch in this variety has a 
tinge of red, and the dorsal sepal is very tine. C. i. alba marginata 
is also distinct, the name being sufiiciently descriptive. C. i. Maulei 
is a large, light coloured form, the dorsal sepal very broad, white at 
the apex, with brighter purple spots than any other kind. C. insigne 
Sanderae is the rarest variety of all, and seems likely to remain so. 
This beautiful kind is wholly of a clear bright yellow with the 
exception of the white dorsal sepal. There are numerous other 
varieties, the chief variations being in the distribution of colour on 
the sepals, but those named above are probably the most distinct. 
~H. R. R, 
THE FLORISTS’ TULIP. 
£By James W. Bentley, Hon. Secretary to the Eoyal National Tulip Society.] 
^Continued from 2 >age 378.) 
Chapter II.— Properties op the Tulip. 
The Tulip flower must have neither more nor less than six 
petals, three outer and three inner, placed alternately, and close to 
each other ; they should be all alike in height, size, and shape, and 
be broadly rounded on the top. The petals must be stout in 
substance, and wide enough to allow of the flower expanding freely 
without showing any gaps or openings between them. These 
openings constitute a deadly fault known as quartering, and make 
the flower possessing it worthless. The expanded flower should 
resemble, in its general outline, a circular cup, or the half of a 
hollow ball. This resemblance to a cup has caused florists to talk 
of the cup when discussing the form of the flower. A “ short cup ” 
is most esteemed as approaching in shape to the half of a hollow 
ball, while a “ long cup ” is looked on with disfavour. 
This standard of the shape of the Tulip may seem arbitrary, 
and I can well imagine the “superior person” of floriculture 
exclaiming, in a tone of pitying contempt, “ Oh ! these purblind 
florists can see no beauty in God’s great gift of flowers until they 
have twisted them into some shape or other, which they are pleased 
to call perfection.” I do not, however, propose to defend our 
special work here, although it can be, and has in the past been, 
well and thoroughly done ; and will merely observe that the world 
ii wide, and that there is plenty of room for all lovers of flowers to 
work in their own way therein. The capacity for improvement is 
in the flower itself ; the standard of perfection is indicated by it, 
and the florist merely helps it in the way it appears to tend to 
improve. The beauty of the Tulip is quite as much in the inside 
as the outside of the flower, and it is evident that no other shape 
than half a hollow ball is so well adapted for fully displaying it. 
The petals are united to the stem immediately below the 
pericarpium, which should be of such a size as to display itself 
prominently when the inside of the flower is looked into. Surround¬ 
ing the pericarpium, at equal distances from each other, are six 
stamens, each of which is surmounted by an anther, which should 
be comparatively large in size and black in colour. 
The bottom of the inside of the flower is called the base, and 
the colour of the base determines the ground colour of the flower. 
This base should extend from the ovary about one-fourth up the 
length of the petals, and should be in colour either pure white 
or pure yellow without any stain or taint of any other colour 
whatever ; the stamens also must be of the same pure colour as 
the base, without stain or tinge of any other colour. A Tulip with 
base and stamens of pure white or pure yellow is said to be pure, 
and one in which either base or stamens display any spot or tinge 
of another colour is said to be stained, and is considered quite 
valueless. 
This quality of purity is a most important one, and has only 
been attained after long years of patient work at seedling-raising. 
The dead and gone southern growers fought manfully for this 
quality in the years that are past, and great was the conflict of 
opinion between them and the North as to which was the most 
important—purity or correct marking. The Tulip has, however. 
settled the question itself by showing that it could combine both 
qualities in one flower, and now the poorly marked pure flowers of 
the South and the splendidly marked but impure flowers of the 
North have been discarded, and both marking and purity are 
absolutely essential. 
It is not necessary here to say anything about the other portions 
of the plant, except that the stem should be long enough to lift 
the flower well above the foliage, and stout enough to support it 
erect. 
All that I have hitherto written applies equally to all florists’ 
Tulips, but it is now necessary to treat of the three great divisions 
into which they are divided ; these are named roses, byblcemens, 
and bizarres. 
Roses have white bases and ground colour, and their petals are 
coloured with some shade of red, which may vary from a delicate 
pink or rose to the most glowing scarlet. The scarlet colour is the 
most prized, but reds of somewhat dull shade are much grown 
because of other merits they possess in the way of shape or 
marking. 
BybUemens —a name which reminds us of Holland, and meaning¬ 
less to English ears—have also white bases and ground colour, but 
the petals are coloured with some shade of purple, which may vary 
in tone from pale lilac or lavender to all but black. The blue- 
black and blue-purple shades are most esteemed, a reddish-brown 
colour is disliked as resembling too much the duller flowers of the 
rose class. The “ rosy byblcemens,” as flowers of this colour are 
called, are still grown to some extent, but they are most unsatis¬ 
factory as being neither one thing nor another, and should be 
discouraged. 
Bizarres have yellow bases and grounds, and the colour on the 
petals may vary from orange-scarlet, through many shades of 
brown to black. All these colours are in favour; preference is, 
however, shown to those which are either very dark in their mark¬ 
ings, or very red and fiery. 
I am strongly of opinion, however, that instead of three divi¬ 
sions (two white grounds and one yellow) we ought to have four, 
by dividing the yellow grounds as well as the white into two 
divisions, which might be called red bizarres and dark bizarres 
respectively. This division has been advocated before, but the 
reason given for it has, so far as I am aware, been mainly that 
formerly the red bizarres were looked on with disfavour, and that 
it was not fair that they should have to compete with the preferred 
dark bizarres at exhibitions. I think a better reason for the 
division can be given. There is quite as much difference between 
a red bizarre and a dark bizarre as between a rose and a bybloemen, 
and just for the same reason, for there is no doubt that the rose or 
red colour which, occurring on a white ground colour produces a 
rose, becomes by mingling with the yellow ground of a bizarre 
Tulip scarlet, and produces a red or scarlet bizarre. Similarly the 
purple colour, which produces a bybloemen when it occurs on a 
white ground, becomes almost black on a yellow ground, and a 
dark bizarre is the result. The bizarres, too, are more numerous 
than either of the other classes, and probably outnumber them 
both put together. There is, therefore, plenty of room for divi¬ 
sion, and we should as a result, assuming they were divided, obtain 
more glowing scarlet bizarres in the red class, and even more 
intense blacks in the dark class, through the exertions of seedling 
raisers, who would have more definite objects in view than at pre¬ 
sent is the case. However this may one day be, at present Tulip 
growers are content with one class in bizarres, and red and dark 
bizarres are equally in favour. 
The Rev. F. D. Horner, in his inimitable style, thus speaks of 
these three divisions in a paper read at a meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society in 1892 ;— 
“ They (the roses) are our fairest, gentlest Tulips, the only class 
that has a sweet and English name (‘ Roses ’), and they seem to exercise 
a softening influence among their fellow flowers, toning down the 
strong, fierce colours of the yellow grounds, and cheering up the spirits, 
so to say, of the dark, cool, quiet, and sometimes almost gloomy flowers 
of the other white ground class, the byblcemens.” 
Each of these three divisions is again subdivided into two, which 
are called breeder Tulips and rectified Tulips. 
A breeder is the seedling form of the Tulip, and the petals are 
entirely suffused, above the base, with one plain self colour. There 
are no markings whatever in breeders, and they simply exhibit one 
uniform tint of colour ; pink to scarlet in the case of roses, silvery 
lilac to dark purple in byblcemens, and orange scarlet, rich browns, 
dull tawny yellow drabs, and dark browns among bizarres. 
These plain seifs or breeders are nothing more than the yet 
unchanged forms of the variegated varieties which are termed 
“ rectified.” This change, which is termed “ breaking ” or “ rectifi¬ 
cation,” is, so far as I am aware, a property possessed among flowers 
by the Tulip alone, and is a very interesting one. Breeders grow 
