52 THE POETRY OF FLOWERS 
DECLARATION OF LOVE. 
TULIP. 
Then comes the tulip race, where beauty plays 
Her idle freaks; from family diffused 
To family, as flies the father dust, 
The varied colours run; and while they break 
On the charmed eye, the exulting florist marks, 
With secret pride, the wonders of his hand. 
Thomson. 
On the banks of the Bosphorus the tulip is the emblem of 
inconstancy; but it is also the symbol of the most violent love. 
The wild tulip is found in the fields of Byzantium, with its 
crimson petals and golden heart. The petals are compared to 
fire, and the yellow heart to brimstone; and when presented 
by an admiring swain to his mistress, it is supposed to declare, 
that such is the effect of the fair one’s beauty, that if he sees 
her only for a moment, his face will be as fire, and his heart 
will be reduced to a coal. 
The tulip was called lulipan, or turban, from the similarity 
of its corolla to the superb head-dress of the barbarous Turks, 
who almost worshipped its elegant stem and the beautiful vase¬ 
like flower which surmounts it. They never cease to admire the 
gorgeous hues of gold and silver, of purple, lilac, and violet, of 
deep crimson and delicate rose-colour, with every possible vari¬ 
ety of teint, which are harmoniously blended together and 
spread over the rich petals of this splendid member of the 
court of Flora. The resemblance its shape bears to the turban 
is thus alluded to in Lalla Rookh : — 
What triumphs crown the rich divan to-day, 
With turbaned heads of every hue and race, 
Bowing before that veiled and awful face, 
Like tulip-beds of different shape and dyes, 
Bending beneath the invisible west wind’s sighs. 
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