Tulip
a genus of bulbous Lilaceæ, with usually solitary campanulate flowers of six free segments, stamens hypogynous, filaments short, anthers fixed by the base, mobile, linear, bursting inward; ovary three-cornered; stigma sessile with three radiating lobes; capsule erect, coriaceous. The genus is restricted to the Old World, extending from western Europe to Japan and the Himalayas; there are about 45 species, of which one is found in Great Britain.
The common garden tulip (T. Gesneriana) has been cultivated away from its native country of southern Russia and Armenia for upward of three centuries.
The first description given of it is by Conrad Gesner, in a memoir published in 1561. He had seen it in bloom in April, 1559, at Augsburg, in the garden of Herwart, who had received the seeds from Byzantium-probably from Dr.
Busbecq, who knew the plant as grown by the Turks. It spread rapidly and appeared in most of the botanical books of the second half of the 16th century.
Vol. X TULIP TREE Into the Netherlands it was introduced in 1571, into England in 1577 (by James Garret), and into France by Peiresc, who cultivated it in 1610 at Aix, having received it from Tournay. The taste for the tulip has since increased and their bulbs have become an article of commerce; it was carried to a ridiculous extent, and the tulip mania reached its height in Holland from 1634 to 1637. To develop all the beauty of form and color of which the tulip is susceptible requires the greatest care in its cultivation. From seed new varieties are raised, the seedlings blossoming at four to seven years. Hundreds of varieties have been established from time to time, which range under four groupsbizarres, byblemens, roses, and selfs. The first have a yellow ground marked with purple or scarlet; the second a white ground variegated with violet or purple of various shades; the third are marked with rose, scarlet, or crimson on a white ground; and the fourth or plaincolored tulip have a white or yellow ground without any marks. The first three of these families are again divided into feathered and flamed according as the intermingled colors are in narrow or broad stripes. stripes. Various other species of Tulipa are now represented in all good collections of bulbous plants, and the early-flowering fragrant T. suaveolens is often seen in window culture. The yellow-flowered T. sylvestris, is common in Europe, and in Siberia its bulbs are eaten. Tulipa is derived from the Turkish word tulipan, a "turban," the rich and varied flowers resembling an inverted cap.