Violets of different kinds are well known ornaments ; the Canadian (Viola Canaden8is) is particularly elegant ; and the Sweet, or March violet, (V. odorata) is not only desir able for its fragrance, but the large flowered double va riety is beautiful.
Different species of Anemone, chiefly with blue flowers, may adorn the front of the border ; such as the splendid Pasque•flower (A. pulsatilla ;) different varieties of the star anemone, (A. hortensis ;) the blue mountain and the meadow anemone (4. apennina and pratensis.) Some of the Gentians are also fine border plants, especially Gentiana asclepiadea and cruciata, both with blue flowers.
489. Among the flowers which have now been enumerat ed, a good many are natives of North America, such as all the species of the elegant genera Phlox and Chelone. A separate ?merican Garden is, however, a desirable thing. Into this the trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants of the New World are only to be admitted ; so that, on entering the garden door, a person possessed of a botanical eye will find himself transported, as it were, across the Atlantic. One of the most complete American gardens in this country is at Milburn Tower, near Edinburgh, the seat of Sir Robert Liston, Bart. formerly British ambassador to the United States.
490. Flowers which are cultivated in beds by themselves are now to be considered. These are in a peculiar man ner distinguished by the title of Florists' flowers. The principal are, the tulip, ranunculus, anemone, iris, dahlia, pink, carnation, polyanthus, auricula, hyacinth, polyanthus narciss, and crocus.
491. The tulip (Tulipa Gesneriana, L.) is a native of many parts of Turkey and of Persia, where the flower is principally of a red colour, each petal having a black mark at its base. It was not brought into the north of Europe until after the middle of the 16th century ; and it was first cultivated in this country by a Mr Garret, an apothecary of London, about the year 1577. A hundred years after its introduction, the tuliponzania, or rage for fine tulips, attain ed its height : it prevailed chiefly at Haarlem, and other parts of the Netherlands. High sounding and bombastic names were bestowed on the favourite varieties, a practice which is still continued by florists. The Viceroy and Sem per Augustus were two sorts, the bulbs of which sold at the most extravagant prices, or rather gave occasion to the most foolish gambling speculations. Twelve acres of land were coveilante,1 to be given by one person, and 4600 florins, besides a new carriage, with horses and harness, by another, for a single tulip bulb, the flowers of which should possess certain almost ideal perfections. In the present
day, tulip collectors possess a few sorts on which they place a high value ; hut in general the very finest varieties may be procured at 5 guineas a hulh ; and a great many of what are reckoned prime kinds at perhaps 5s. a piece.
Tulips were formerly divided into prcreoces, or early flowering ; medix, or middle•timed : and serotinc, or late flowering. One of the pr cotes, it may be noticed, is a distinct species, T. suaveolens ; this is the early dwarfish sweet-scented tulip, or Duke Van Thol of the catalogues : when planted in a small bed by themselves, these Van Thol tulips, when in flower in April, form one of the most re splendent scenes presented by the flower garden. Par kinson, so long ago as 1629, enumerates 140 varieties of tulips, and hints that there were many more. Maddock, in his catalogue, gives the names of 665 choice..late tulips, independent altogether of early-sorts, double flowered, and what are called parrot tulips.
492. Late tulips are the only kind now attended to by florists, the double and parrot sorts being in little esteem with them. They are divided into six families, distinguish ed by barbarous titles, a mixture of French and Dutch. 1. Primo baguettes, very tall, (the term baguette inferring that they resemble a small walking-stick, or switch,) cups with a white ground broken with fine brown; and all from the same breeder. 2. Baguettes rigauts (or rougeaudrs,) with strong stems, though not so tall, very large cups, with a white ground, likewise broken with fine brown, and all from the same breeder. 3. Verports, (or, as they are more commonly called in this country, Incomparable Verports, or simply Incomparables,) with very perfect cups, having a beautiful white ground, or bottom, well broken with shin ing brown approaching to rose colour, and all from the same breeder. 4. Roses,- allied to the verports, the petals streaked with cherry and rose colours, on a white ground. 5. Bybloemens, sometimes contracted into bybloems, with the ground white or nearly so, from different breeders, and broken with variety of colours. 6. Bizarre*, (probably a corruption from bigaree,) with a yellow ground, from dif ferent breeders, and broken with variety of colours.