]!r 28, 1904. 
fHE Gardening World 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ And young and old come forth to play on a sunshine holy-day,”— Milton. 
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FOR 
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Che Proprietors of Tub Gardening World 
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Hie following Coloured 
Plates have appeared in 
recent numbers:— 
May 23,— SAXIFRAGA GRISEBACHII, 
May 30. - DENDROBIUM NOBILE 
tOTUNDIFLORUM and D.n. NOBILIUS. 
July 4.— APHELANDRA AURANTIACA 
tOEZLII. 
August 1.— BORONIA HETEROPHYLLA. 
September 12.— SIX NEW DAFFODILS. 
October 3— LILIUM AURATUM PLA- 
rYPHYLLUM SHIRLEY VAR. 
Novembei 14.— ROSE MME. N. LEVA- 
MASSEUR 
January 2.— HYBRID TEA-SCENTED 
ROSE IRENE. 
January 30. — TUBEROUS BEGONIA 
COUNTESS OF WARWICK. 
February 27- -A FINE STRAIN OF 
GLOXINIAS. 
April 2. — WISTARIA MULTIJUGA 
RUSSELLIANA. 
Back numbers may be obtained from the 
publishers, price 2^d. post free. 
This week we present a Half-tone 
Plate of 
ARUNDINARIA JAPONICA. 
Next week we shall give a Coloured 
Plate of 
CACTUS DAHLIA SPITFIRE. 
*** The priie last week in the Headers' 
Competition was awarded to “G. F.” 
for his article on “ Lily of the Nile 
Culture,” page 420. 
Views and Reviews. 
A Galaxy of Tulips. 
Since it was discovered that, the late or 
May-flowering Tulips would make excellent 
subjects for bedding, and that the gaiety pro¬ 
duced by the April-flowering or early varieties 
could be prolonged for another month—till 
time, in fact, to put out. the summer bedding 
—tlie number of available varieties has been 
greatly increased, and continues unabated. 
Time was when the. English florists’ 1 ulip 
was regarded as the only legitimate 1 subject 
tit for garden decoration. While that idea 
prevailed the cultivation of the florists’ Tulip 
was limited to specialists, who, though a.n 
earnest, were hut a small body compared 
with the vast, body, amateur and profes¬ 
sional, who grow them to-day. A belief pre¬ 
vailed that, the florists’ Tulip required great 
care and attention, and that was more than 
the gardener could undertake to give. The 
chief care necessary was to provide means feu 
protecting the flowers against, storms of rain 
and hail owing to the uncertainties of the 
weather in May ; and that applied chiefly to 
intending exhibitors. Some of the varieties 
might, have been of tender constitution owing 
to. the inbreeding necessary to keep the new 
varieties within the narrow limits prescribed 
by the canons of the florist. 
‘ The breeder or first, stage of the Tulip had 
to be of some well defined self colour, with a 
white or yellow base. Those having a yellow 
base were known as bizarres when they broke 
or became rectified. The breeder Tulip, 
with a white base, would either become a, rose 
or a bybloemen, when rectified, according to 
the ground or body colour of the breeder. 
Purple, violet, or their intermediates could 
only break into bybloerdens. Those having 
rose, scarlet,, or any shade of red or crimson 
in the breeder stage could only belong to the 
rose section when rectified. There were, 
however, two sub-divisions of these three: 
groups, according to the arrangement of the 
colour when rectified—namely, flamed an 
feathered varieties. This rearrangement of 
colours in the rectified flowers always intro¬ 
duced a great element of uncertainty. A 
breeder might be 1 grown for many years, and 
exhibited as such, but the chances weie that 
when it became broken or recti.fled it might 
be useless for exhibition. The first, stage 
was the flame, when the dark colours sepa¬ 
rated into a more or less branching flame 
along the centre', with a more or less decided 
feathering on the margin. The cultivator, 
when growing bulbs of a flamed variety, could 
not he certain whether or not the flowers 
would merely be feathered the next season. 
Even when they did sport in this way into 
the third or last stage, the feather might or 
might not be sufficiently decided to be 
worthy of a place on the show board. The 
uncertainty of these flowers made it difficult, 
to, gauge what would be tit for exhibition 
from year to year. The English florists’ 
Tulip owes its origin entirely to, Tulipa, ges- 
neriana,. The blunt, rounded petals, and the 
cup-shape of the flowers, would indicate this. 
A pointed flower would be an abomination 
to the florist. This leads us to a considera¬ 
tion of some of the other Tulips that now con¬ 
tribute to, the embellishment of the garden. 
For many years past the very earliest Tulips 
were known as Due Van Thai, which still 
exist in several colour varieties, and were de¬ 
rived from T. suaveolens, a naturally early- 
flowering species. This race furnishes the 
Tulips that are forced into bloom for the 
Christmas market. Some of those which 
bloom out of doors in April were also derived 
from it, including the Pottebakker varieties. 
The Darwin Tulips are derived from T. ges- 
neria.ua, and, owing to the absence of restric¬ 
tions as to colours, so long as they are beau¬ 
tiful, there is no necessity for inbreeding, and 
the varieties are consequently hardier and 
much more vigorous in constitution. They 
are practically everybody’s flower, and the 
gardens of the villas in many country vil¬ 
lages are still gay with late-flowering Tulips 
of this class. The flowers are cup-shaped, 
but vary greatly in length and width as well 
as colour. The base may be characterised 
by blotches of a different, colour to the rest 
of the flower, and these, again, may be neatly 
outlined by a white or yellow line. This 
latter fact would seeui to indicate that more 
than one species have been used in their pro¬ 
duction. Many years ago the cottager’s 
garden became the refuge of many handsome 
Tulips, which were too pointed to, fit, in with 
the florists’ idea of beauty in a Tulip. Many 
of these stray varieties have been redis¬ 
covered by growers who can see beauty apart 
from geometrical symmetry, and reinstated 
in public favour and gardens of the highest 
repute. Some of these may have been the 
refuse, so called, of the seed-bed of 
the raisers of florists’ varieties. Others 
could never have come into that cate¬ 
gory, and have resulted by the cross¬ 
ing of different species with the object of get¬ 
ting something new. Several of these are 
pointed flowers, generally admitted or con- 
