1S78. ] 
A GOSSIP ON TULIP-SHOWING. 
83 
“ The most useful, or rather necessary, of all 
vegetable productions to man, the Cerealia 
(plants which produce tho ‘ breadstuffs ’ of 
the American vocabulary), appear to be almost 
all of them of the class most abhorrent to the 
botanist,— hybrids. At least the native original 
of many of them is, I believe, unknown, and of 
others would not be recognised except by a 
botanist. Cultivation during the course of four 
thousand years, and a care bestowed upon 
improving the seed, like that which the florist 
practises upon the Fuchsia or the Calceolaria, 
have made them what they now are. There 
can, therefore, be nothing unnatural in the art 
which has brought into being, or at least to its 
present state of perfection, the staff of human 
lifo. 
“ And if the end aimed at in improving the 
petals of a Dianthus be of less importance to 
the welfare of man than in improving the seed 
of a Carex, yet the mode by which it is 
effected being the same in both cases, what is 
right in the one case cannot be wrong in the 
other. If it is not unnatural in the fruit, 
neither is it in the flower. That art is in per¬ 
fect analogy with all the other consequences of 
our condition as children of Adam,—a con¬ 
dition which requires at our hands a laborious 
compulsion of nature to yield up to our im¬ 
portunities the riches it is entrusted with for 
our use. —Iota.” 
A GOSSIP ON TULIP-SHOWING. 
S S an opening to this Gossip, I will repeat 
a question which I put to the Tulip- 
growers of England more than 20 
years since, which was as follows :—Can any 
one give a sound reason why we do not tolerate 
two classes of varieties amongst yellow-ground 
Tulips, in like manner as we admit two classes 
amongst the white-ground flowers ? My own 
opinion is that there is just as much room for 
two classes of yellow grounds as there is for 
two classes of white grounds. I say, separate 
the red-marked Bizarres from those with the dark 
marking, just as the varieties of the Rose class 
are separated from those termed Byblcemens. 
At the time I first broached this subject, I 
had the major part of my Southern friends in 
favour of it. During my Tulip bloom last year, 
a French gentleman—a florist, whose chief 
hobbies are Tulips and Picotees—having busi¬ 
ness in Huddersfield, came twice to see my 
flowers. The last time he was here I cut six¬ 
teen flowers, which he took away with him; 
but previous to doing so, he made them into a 
fourth-row stand, after the style in which 
they are exhibited in his part of the country, 
placing them as indicated below :— 
4 
Dk-flamed 
Bizarre. 
Dk-feath. 
Bizarre. 
Dk-flamed 
Bizarre. 
Dk-fcath. 
Bizarre. 
3 
Red-featk. 
Bizarre. 
Red-flamed 
Bizarre. 
Red-feath. 
Bizarre. 
Red-flamed 
Bizarre. 
2 
Flamed 
Byblramen. 
Featherod 
Byblramen. 
Flamed 
Byblramen. 
Feathered 
Byblramen. 
I 
Feathered 
Rose. 
Flamed 
Rose. 
Feathered 
Rose. 
Flamed 
Rose. 
1 
2 
3 
4 
I thought they looked very well indeed. I do 
not know how far this style of placing the 
flowers might suit tho taste of our Northern 
exhibitors, but one thing I am certain of, that 
by their being arranged after this fashion, they 
would be much handier for the judges on the 
show-days, and they would be examined in 
much less time, which is of importance on our 
national show-days, when the judges should 
have finished their work previous to the public 
being admitted. 
There are a few other little matters in con¬ 
nection with exhibiting Tulips on which I 
should like to say a word, not in the least 
degree with any desire to dictate, but merely 
as affording suggestions which happen to lie 
within my own breast. Every individual has 
just the same right to his own opinions ; I only 
claim to say for myself that in the exhibiting 
of Tulips, I think it possible for improve¬ 
ments to bo made, and when I have set them 
forth, I leave it to others to approve or dis¬ 
approve of them. 
In class-showing, I should say six flowers 
would be quite sufficient to run them to, if they 
are to be really good flowers, worthy of being 
thus prominently placed. 
For pan and stand-showing, I should propose 
for the stands containing the largest number 
of flowers, sixteen different varieties, four times 
four, chosen from the four different classes, viz., 
—feathered and flamed Roses, Bybloemens, Red 
Bizarres, and Dark Bizarres, and for these allow 
three prizes; for stands of twelve flowers, 
three prizes ; for stands of nine flowers, three 
prizes. For stands of six flowers, and for 
stands of flowers below six in number, I should 
say let a majority of the exhibitors themselves 
settle how and in what way those stands shall 
be arranged, one main consideration being how 
a 2 
