TULIP. Of all the plant' which have obtained attention on account of the beauty of their flowers, perhaps tulips have had the most. In estimating the excellence of a particular flower, the florist Is not so much guided by its beauty of form and colouring as by its rarity ; and aorta which have at one time obtained great prices on account of their rarity have become little thought of when they became more abundant. There are, however, several points considered by florists as essential to the character of a, fine tulip. " The stem should be strong, elastic, and erect, and about 30 inches above the surface of the bed. The flowers should be large, and composed of six petals (phyll): these should pro ceed a little horizontally at first, and then turn upwards, forming almost a perfect cup, with a round bottom, rather widest at the top. The three exterior petals should be rather larger than the three inte rior ones, and broader at their base : all the petals) should have perfectly entire edges, free from notch or serrature ; theotop of each should be broad and well rounded; the ground colour of the flower, at the bottom of the cup, should be clear white or yellow, and tho various rich.
coloured stripes, which are the principal ornament of a fine tulip, should be regular, bold, and distinct on the margin, and terminate in fine broken points elegantly feathered or pencilled. The centre of each leaf or petal should contain ono or more bold blotches or stripes, Inter mixed with small portions of the original or breeder colour, abruptly broken Into many irregular obtuse points." Cyc. of Card.) For the botanical character, see Trate). in NAT. altar. Div.
The varieties of cultivated tulip' have been divided by florists In many ways for the sake of convenience. Parkinson, who wrote in 1029, enumerates 140 varieties, which were divided into praccres, early blowers; strainer, late blowers ; and dubsee media, doubtful or middle blowers. The first division consisted principally of varieties of Tulips suareolens ; the latter divisions were chiefly composed of varieties of 7'. Gesneriana. Amongst modern florists in Great Britain, the varieties of the latter tulip, of which upwards of GOO are enumerated 111 modern catalogues, are divided into tour families—Bizarres, Bybleemens, noses, and Sells.
Bizarre tulips have a yellow ground marked with purple or scarlet of different shades. Byblamen tulips have a white ground, lined, marked, striped, or variegated with violet or purple only of various shades. Rose tulips are marked or variegated with rose, scarlet, crim son, or cherry colour on a white ground. Selfs, or plain-coloured tulips, are those which have mr white or yellow ground without any marks. Tho first three of these families are again divided into feathered and flamed, according as the intermingled colours are in narrow stripes or pencilling', or in a broad central stripe.
It is from amongst the last family of tulips, the ifs, that what are called breeders are selected. In a state of nature the tulip is mostly a self, that is, it has but one colour ; but under certain circumstances all the other colours that are found in tulips will be developed in these simple-coloured tulips. It is thus that the last variety of tulips has
been obtained that at present exists ; and as each variety can be propa gated by offshoots from the parent bulb, and as the colours of tulips will admit of an infinity of modes of blending, there is hardly a limit to the number of varieties of these flowers which may be obtained. Selfs are always raised from seeds, but the circumstances which are most favourable to the "breaking" of the Sells, as the development of other colours is called, are not well understood. A florist will have to wait sometimes twenty years without having the pleasure of seeing his Self " break." T. develops all the beauty of form and colour of which the tulip Is susceptible, requires the greatest care in its cultivation, and perhaps it is only amongst the amateurs of Rolland and Belgium that this flower can be seen hi all its glory. Tulips are mostly planted in beds, which should be made in an open, airy situation. A bed of tulips is planted in what are technically called rows, consisting uniformly of seven, arranged with regard to the harmony of their colours, the tallest occu pying the centre, and the bed may be thus of any length, while the row always consists of seven. The soil should be dug out for about 20 inches deep, and the bed filled in with a mixture of about two parte of a fresh, rich, loamy soil, rather of a sandy character, and ono part of well-rotted cow-dung. The hest time for planting the bulbs is from the end of October to about the 10th of November. They should be planted about seven inches apart, and about four inches deep, or lees according to their size, in the ground. The leaves will appear in Feb ruary, and the blossoms in April or May. The bed of flowers should be protected by an awning, which must not be used till the flowers are opened, and should be so constructed that the light and air may be freely admitted during the intervals between the coolness of the night and the brightness of the sun at noonday. Tulips should never be arti ficially watered. When the petals fall off, the seed-vessel should be removed, as its remaining on weakens the bulb. When the top of the stein begins to wither and dry up, and the leaves become brown, the bulbs should be taken up and placed in a dry situation. In the follow ing August or September the loose skins and fibres and the easily sepa rable offsets should be taken off the bulbs, and they should be depo eited in drawers. In propagating the tulip from seeds, they should be town in deep boxes, filled with good garden-mould mixed with fund. The young plants will not require water, and they may be expected to blossom by the fourth or fifth year, or at latest the seventh.
(Loudon, Cyclopedia of Plants ; Cyclopadia of Gardening ; Macin tosh's Book of the Garden ; Diction. des Sciences Natnrelles ; Paxtou's Botanical Dictionary ; Itedout6, Liliacies ; Ilogg, Stipp. to l'ractical Treatise, &c.)