While it is safe to prophesy that the Tulip will never again become the innocent object of a miserable mania as it was in years gone by, it is equally safe to prognosticate for it an increasing popularity. It will not come into its own as a late spring flower until people realise how indefensible is the policy of making this noble bulb play second fiddle to a few wretched summer bedders, but that realisation must come sooner or later.

The Tulips which are seen in the public parks in spring give but a feeble idea of the beauty of this splendid bulb. The flowers, which belong to what is called the early Dutch section, are bright and cheerful enough, but they have none of the majesty of the May bloomers. They have hitherto been given preference from quite other reasons than intrinsic beauty and worth - namely, cheapness, and capacity (surely an ignoble, negative quality!) of getting themselves out of flower quickly. Cheapness is a valuable thing in its way, but it is not quite everything. Besides, when the demand for May bloomers has grown to proportions approximating to that for the early Dutch, stocks will be multiplied to such a degree that prices will fall.

At present the public says in its wisdom: "Give me a Tulip that can be cleared out of the beds early in May, to make room for a very distinct, remarkable and valuable plant called a Zonal Pelargonium, of which I have a valuable stock." (Yes, a stock worth about five shillings a hundred! Support it with another distinct, remarkable, and valuable plant called a yellow Calceolaria, and you have a very beautiful, refined, and original combination!) "A Tulip," the public goes on to say, "that is in flower from the middle of May to the middle of June really bothers me. What am I to do with my Zonals all that time!" Ah, true! A most perplexing problem!

But some people have rather bigger ideas. They are in the minority at present, but their day will come. Meanwhile, they will regard a collection of late Tulips as one of the noblest objects of their gardens. The longer the flowers remain in beauty (and, owing to their greater substance, they last much longer than the early Dutch, in spite of the warmer season at which they bloom) the better pleased will their owners be. When the time at length comes that it has to be acknow ledged, sadly and reluctantly, that the stately beauties have finally faded, these people will draw from boxes in their frames sturdy plants of graceful Comet Asters, Nicotiana Sanderae, Salpiglossises, and other beautiful things, which have been coming on from seed throughout the spring, and plant them in the Tulip bed for summer and autumn effect. Or mayhap they are tuberous Begonia lovers, in which case they will have started tubers gently into growth in leaf mould, pressed firmly into small boxes, in March, brought the plants steadily along under cool, airy conditions throughout May and June, and have them all ready to plant when the Tulips go.

The common idea that all flowered bulbs are worthless is an entirely wrong and wasteful one. It does not apply to even forced Tulips, still less to those which are bloomed in a natural way in the open ground. New flowering bulbs are formed annually, together with smaller ones. This at least is so with all healthy and vigorous plants. To make sure of having them of full size and ripeness, the author carefully lifts his plants from the beds in clumps directly the flower stems are cut down, and transfers them to a nursery bed, where the soil is fertile and well dug. Here they are laid in, with their labels close to them, and left until the foliage has matured, when they are lifted, ripened by being laid out, and sorted. The ripening process is not essential, and good results have followed when the plants have been left undisturbed in the nursery bed until planting time came round again in October or November. The bulbs are covered with 3 inches of earth, the soil being clay; in lighter ground another inch would be to their advantage. They are generally planted in threes, the bulbs 6 inches, the clumps 18 inches, apart.

Thus managed the plants are truly magnificent. They form bushes of healthy foliage that entirely hides the soil. They throw up stems 18 to 24 inches long, and as thick as Raspberry canes. They produce flowers of the size of breakfast cups, and with petals nearly as substantial and delicately tinted as fine porcelain. Many of the varieties seem painted with living colours, which twine in soft, subdued movements over the lustrous flowers. The selfs are much superior to the florists' Bizarres and Bybloemens for garden decoration. These one-coloured flowers present a great diversity of hues. There are white, blush, pink, rose, salmon, scarlet, crimson, and maroon, with indefinable dusky hues approximating to claret, violet, purple, and amaranth. All should have a clear, unstained base within.

The attention that is given to these glorious Tulips must not cause the Tulip lover to overlook the several charming species, such as Ges neriana, Greigi, sylvestris, Billietiana, retroflexa, and vitellina, which are beautiful and valuable flowers. Gesneriana is a noble species, qualified to vie with many of the May bloomers. From it, probably, the majority of the florists' varieties sprang.

The Parrot Tulips are perhaps more remarkable for quaintness of form and colouring than garden value. The petals are much contorted.