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TULIP. 65 
It would be almost impossible to credit the 
extraordinary accounts of the high prices given 
in that country for Tulips, did we not know that 
it was arage 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 toamummy 
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- 
G 2 

