THE GARDEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1314, 6 May 1897, Page 5

THE GARDEN.

THE TULIP MANIA lii HOLLAND. [By J. Macdonald Oxley.] Regarding ribbons, Charles Dickens sagely remarks in the Christmas Carol that they are so cheap you can make a brave show with them for sixpence. The same thing may be said novv-a-days of tulips. So easily may they be procured, and with such little difficulty cultivated in our gardens, that one can hardly understand how the bulb from which these gorgeous flowers spring could ever have commanded the price of precious stones. Yet such was the case in the land of the Dutch in the first third of the seventeenth century. Could Conrad Gesner have been able to forecast the future, and get a prophetic glimpse of the woes liis praises of the flowers he saw for the first time in the garden of Counsellor Herwart were fated to bring upon his countrymen, he would no doubt have kept his discovery to himself. Counsellor Herwarb lived in Augsburg, and was famous for his collection of rare exotics.

Among them were some bril-liant flowers grown from the bulb sent him by a friend in Constantinople, where their beauty had long been appreciated. Gesner on his return home, spread abroad the praises of V.iis plant so effectually that, in the ajarse of the next few years, tuli t s were much sought after by the wealthy, especially in Germany and Holland. Rich folk at Amsterdam did not begrude sending direct to Constantinople for bulbs, and wore quite willing to pay big prices for them.

As years went by, the tulip continued to increase in reputation, until it was as incumbent on persons of fortune to have a collection ot them as to keep a carriage. Nor was the interest in them confined to the wealthy. r i he rage for their possession soon spread to the middle classes of society ; and merchants and shopkeepers, even of mode* rate means, began to vie with each other in the size and strangeness of their collection, and in the preposterous prices paid for bulbs. A trader at Haarlem was known to pay one half of his fortune for a single root, not with the design of selling it again at a profit, but simply to cultivate it in his own conservatory for the admiration of his friends. In explanation of this extraordinary interest in a single variety of plant, the flowing lines of Cowley may be quoted : “ The Tulip next appeared, all over gay, But wanton, full of pride, and full of play ; The world can’t show a dye but here has place. Nay, by new mixtures, she can change her face, Purple and gold are both beneath her care, The richest needlework she loves to wear; Her only study is to please the eye, And to outshine the rest in finery.” But, poetic as the portrait is, the proe of Beckmann probably gets nearer the mark. “There are few plants,” he says, “ which acquire, through accident, weakness, or disease, so many variega- . tion as the tulip. When uncultivated, j and in its natural state, it is almost of one colour, has large leaves, and an extraordinary leng stem. When it has been weakened by cultivation, it become more agreeable in the eye of the

florist. The petals are then paler, smaller, and more diversified in hue, and the leaves acquire a softer green colour. Thus, this masterpiece of culture, the more beautiful it turns, grows so much the weaker; so that, with the greatest skill and most careful attention, it can scarcely be transplanted, or even kept alive." Any one familiar with the modern mania for orchid growing and collecbing must at once see the secret of the old-time craze for tulips, although it is not easy to understand a whole people being infected with it an once. Yet true it is that in 1623 the rage among the Dutch for the possession of rare varieties was so great that the ordinary industries of the country fell into neglect, and the population, down to the lowest ranks, embarked in the tulip trade.

Charles Mackay, to whom I am indebted for much of my information, states that prices rose rapidly until, in the year 1625, known to invest a fortune of one hundred thousand florins on the puirchase of forty roots ! It became necessary to appraise the bulbs by their weight in perits, a perit being less than a grain, just as if they were as precious a 3 diamonds, whose weight is told in tiny carats. When the mania was at its height a tulip of the species called “Admiral Liefken,” weighing four hundred perits, was worth four hundred florins; an Admiral Van der Evck of four hundred and forty-six perits was worth one thousand two hundred and sixty florins. For a Viceroy of four hundred perits three thousand florins had to be paid ; while, most precious of all, a Semper Agustine, weighing but two hundred perits, was thought to be very cheap at five thousand five hundred florins. Of this last variety it is related that early in 1636 there were only two roots to be had in all Holland ; and so eager were speculators to obtain them that the fee simple of twelve acres of choice building ground in Haarlem was offered for the one, and the other sold for four thousand six hundred florins, a new carriage, two fine gray horses, and a complete set of harness.