i 02 
I 
the sands.” In Holland, at the very same period, the 
rage for the tulip was really a mental phrensy. The 
ordinary business of the country, says Mr. Mackey, in 
his clever work upon popular delusions, was neglected, 
and the population, even to its lowest dregs, embarked 
in the tulip trade. 
Ten thousand pounds were given for forty roots. One 
variety, named Admiral Leif ken, sold for 440 pounds; 
and a Semper Augustus for 550. bet we do not find that 
any particular perfection of colour or of form charac¬ 
terised these exorbitantly priced flowers. Rarity and 
the weight of the bulbs seem to have determined the 
value. In 1036, regular marts were established on the 
Exchange at Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Haarlem, and 
elsewhere, and gambling in tulip roots became a mer¬ 
cantile pursuit. AR classes were engulphed in this se¬ 
ducing road to riches, and when the bubble burst, those 
who held tulips on speculation were ruined by the reduc¬ 
tion of price. The government and the law courts were 
appealed to in vain, for the just reply was—you only 
suffer from having embarked in a gambling speculation. 
During this mania, a merchant having given a her¬ 
ring to a sailor, who had brought him some goods, left 
him alone to his breakfast. The sailor seeing some 
tulip roots lying near him, and mistaking them for 
onions, ate part of one with his fish; and that bulb was 
so valuable, adds the narrator, that the sailor's meal cost 
the merchant more than if he had prepared an enter¬ 
tainment for a prince. 
The same mania never prevailed to such an extent in 
England, but Mr. Mackay says that, in 1835, a tulip, 
! named Fanny Kemble, was sold by auction for £75; and 
S a florist in the King’s Road, Chelsea, had one priced in 
his catalogues at 200 guineas; a price, we may readily 
believe, that never did more than appear in print. The 
florist conjured for spirits, but the spirits never came. 
Many of our readers will be glad to have it explained 
that florists call tidips seedlings until they have bloomed ; 
after this those preserved on account of their good form 
and habit, as well as the offsets they produce, are called 
breeders. After some years the petals of these become 
striped, and they are then said to be broken. If the 
striping is good, they are said to have a good strain; if 
it be inferior, they are described as having a bad strain. 
A rectified tulip is synonymous with a tulip having a 
good strain. 
A feathered tulip has a dark-coloured edge round its 
petals, gradually becoming lighter on the margin next 
the centre of the petal; the feathering is said to be light, 
if narrow; heavy, if broad; and irregular, if its inner 
edge has a broken outline. 
A flamed tulip is one that has a dark-pointed spot, 
somewhat in shape like the flame of a candle, in the 
centre of each petal. 
Sometimes a tulip is both feathered and flamed. 
A Bizarre tulip has a yellow ground, and coloured 
marks on its petals. 
A Byblomen is white, marked with black, lilac, or 
purple. 
_. s r ■ -.■< 
[May 16. 
A Rose is white, with marks of crimson, pink, or 
scarlet. 
It is needless to follow the history of the characteris¬ 
tics of a superior tulip, as exhibited in the works of Rea, I 
Abercrombie, Maddock, and others, for they have been 
revised and gathered together by Mr. Glenny in his 
“ Properties of Flowers.” With some slight alterations 
thev are as follows:— 
* 
1. The cup when fully expanded should form, as 
nearly as possible, half of a hollow ball. The petals, 
six in number, must be broad at the ends, smooth at 
the edges, and the divisions where the petals meet 
scarcely showing an indentation. 
2. The three inner petals should set close to the three 
outer ones, and the whole should be broad enough to 
allow of the fullest expansion without quartering (as it 
is called), that is, exhibiting any vacancy between the 1 
petals. 
3. The petals should be thick, smooth, and stiff, and 1 
keep their form well. 
4. The ground colour should be clear and distinct, i 
whether white or yellow.* The least stain, even at the j 
lower end of the petal, would render a tulip compara¬ 
tively valueless. 
5. Whatever the colours or marks upon a tulip, all j 
the petals should be marked alike, and perfectly uni- j 
form. 
0. The feathered flowers should have an even, close \ 
feathering all round, and whether the feathering be nar¬ 
row or wide, light or heavy, it should reach far enough 
round the petals to form, when they are expanded, an 
unbroken edging all round. 
7. If the flower have any marking besides the feather¬ 
ing at the edge, it should be a beam, or bold mark down 
the centre, but not to reach the bottom, or near the 
bottom of the cup; the mark or beam must be similar 
in all the six petals. 
8. Flowers not feathered, and with aflame only, must 
have no marks on the edges of the flower. None ot the 
colour must breakthrough to the edge. The colour may 
* Ground colour is that upon which the other colours are laid. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
