TULIP. 
73 
It would be almost impossible to credit the 
extraordinary accounts of the high prices given 
in that country for Tulips, did w.e not know that 
it was a rage for gambling speculations, rather 
than a fondness for flowers, which occasioned 
these excesses. For a single Tulip, to which 
the Dutch florists had given the fine name of 
Semper Augustus , were given four thousand 
six hundred florins (about £400), a beautiful 
new carriage, a pair of horses, and harness: 
another of the same kind sold for thirteen thou¬ 
sand florins ; and engagements to the amount 
of £5000 were made during the height of this 
mania for a single root of a particular sort. A 
person who possessed a Tulip of a very fine 
variety, hearing that there was another of the 
same kind .at Haerlem, repaired to that city, 
and, having purchased it at an enormous price, 
placed it on a stone and crushed it to a mummy 
with his foot, exclaiming with exultation, “Now 
my tulip is unique !” We are also told that 
another, who possessed a yearly income of sixty 
thousand florins, reduced himself to beggary in 
the short space of four months, by purchasing 
these flowers. From this spirit of floral gam- 
4 
