the eastern Tulip known by a description and figure. Balbinus asserts that Busbequius brought the first Tulip-roots to Prague, whence they were spread all over Germany. Busbequius himself says, in a letter written in 1754, that this flower was then new to him. We know that he collected natural curiosities, and brought many from the Levant. He relates that he paid very dear to the Turks for Tulips; but he nowhere affirms that he was the first who brought them from the East. In 1565, there were Tulips in the garden of Mr. Fugger, from whom Gesner wished to procure some. The first Tulips planted in England were sent from Vienna about the end of the sixteenth century *.

Churchill erroneously supposes the Tulip to be a native of Holland:

"The tulip, idly glaring to the view,

Who, though no clown, his birth from Holland drew,
Who, once full-dressed, fears from his place to stir,
The fop of flowers."

These flowers, of no further utility. than to ornament gardens, and whose duration is short and very precarious, became, in the middle of the seventeenth century, the object of a trade for which there is no parallel, and their price rose beyond the value of the most precious metals. Many authors have given an account of this trade, some of whom have misrepresented it. Menage called it the Tulipomania, at which people laugh because they believe that the beauty and rarity of the flowers induced florists to give such extravagant prices. But this Tulip-trade was a mere gambling commerce, and the Tulips themselves were only nominally its objects: many bargains being daily made, and the roots neither given nor received. A long and curious account of

* See Beckmann's History of Inventions, vol. i.

this trade is to be found in the first volume of Beckmann's History of Inventions.

Persons fond of flowers, however, particularly in Holland, have paid very high prices for Tulips, as the catalogues of flowers show. In the year 1769 the dearest kinds in England were the Don Quevedo and the Valentinier: the former was sold at two guineas; the latter at two and a half.

"This," says Beckmann, "may be called the lesser Tulipomania, which has given occasion to some laughable circumstances. When John Balthasar Schuppe was in Holland, a merchant gave a herring to a sailor who had brought him some goods. The sailor seeing some valuable Tulip-roots lying about, which he considered as of little consequence, thinking them to be onions, took some of them unperceived, and ate them with his herring. Through this mistake the sailor's breakfast cost the merchant a much greater sum than if he had treated the Prince of Orange."

"Another laughable anecdote is told of an Englishman, who, being in a Dutchman's garden, pulled a couple of Tulips, on which he wished to make some botanical observations, and put them into his pocket; but he was apprehended as a thief, and obliged to pay a considerable sum before he could obtain his liberty."

In proportion as Tulips blow later in the year, their stems are longer, and consequently the more they require support their bending to the wind, and their resemblance to the turbans from which they are named, are alluded to by Mr. Moore in the following lines:

:

"What triumph crowds the rich Divan to-day
With turban'd heads, of every hue and race,
Bowing before that veiled and awful face,

Like tulip-beds, of different shape and dyes,
Bending beneath th' invisible west wind's sighs!"

LALLA ROOKн.

A Turkish poet, in an ode translated by Sir W. Jones, compares "Roses and Tulips to the cheeks of beautiful maids, in whose ears the pearls hang like drops of dew." In some parts of Turkey there are plains completely carpeted with the most beautiful anemonies, and

"With tulips like the ruddy evening streaked."

The Persian poet Hafez repeatedly compares this gay flower to his mistress's cheek*.

Time's Telescope for 1820 quotes the following lines from Kleist's Spring:

"Who thus, O tulip! thy gay-painted breast

In all the colours of the sun has drest?
Well could I call thee, in thy gaudy pride,

The queen of flowers; but blooming by thy side,
Her thousand leaves that beams of love adorn,
Her throne surrounded by protecting thorn,

And smell eternal, form a juster claim,

Which gives the heaven-born rose the lofty name,

Who having slept through all the wintry storm,

Now through the opening buds displays her smiling form."

"Then comes the tulip-race, where beauty plays
Her idle freaks: from family diffused

To family, as flies the father dust,

The varied colours run; and while they break
On the charmed eye, th' exulting florist marks
With secret pride the wonders of his hand."

THOMSON.

Poets frequently propose the early fading of the most beautiful flowers as a warning against female vanity. Herrick addresses these lines to a bed of Tulips :

Time's Telescope for 1822, p. 214.

"Bright tulips, we do know

You had your coming hither;
And fading time does show,
That ye must quickly wither.
"Your sisterhoods may stay,

And smile here for your hour;
But ye must die away,

E'en as the meanest flower.

"Come virgins then, and see

Your frailties, and bemoan ye;
For, lost like these, 'twill be

As time had never known ye."

VALERIAN.

VALERIANA.

VALERIANEÆ.

TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

The derivation of this name is uncertain.-French, la valériane.-Italian, valeriana.

THE Valerians vary in size from three or four feet to as many inches; their flowers are commonly red or white, but there are a few species with blue, and with yellow flowers.

The seeds may be sown of the annual kinds, and the roots parted of the perennial, in spring or autumn. Some of them, as the Red and the Alpine Valerians, thrive best on rocks, old walls, or buildings; the seed being scattered in the joints and chinks.

The Pyrenean species likes shade and a moist soil: the Garden Valerian likes moisture too, and plenty of room, as it spreads fast.

All the kinds must be kept moderately moist. Some give the Alpine kinds a poor stony soil covered with moss, in imitation of their natural place of growth, on mossy rocks, where the snow lies six or seven months in the year.

VERBENACEE.

VERVAIN.

VERBENA.

DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMA.

The derivation of Verbena is uncertain: it originally signified any herb used to decorate altars. The present plant is also named Juno'stears, Columbine, and Pigeon's-grass.-French, verveine.-Italian, verbena.

THE Verbenas are generally natives of warm countries, and require much care and tenderness; most of them may be preserved, however, without a stove, when once raised. The Cut-leaved Rose Vervain is an annual or biennial plant, in some estimation for its brilliant colours. It flowers in June and July.

The most popular kind is the Three-leaved, of which the scent seems to partake of the Lemon and the Almond. The leaves are delicate and elegant; the flowers pale purple. This delightful little shrub is a native of South America: it may stand abroad in the summer, but should be housed again about Michaelmas. It may be increased by cuttings planted in any of the summer months.

The Common Vervain-in French, vervene verveine; herbe sacrée [sacred herb]: in Italian, verbena; erba colombina [dove-wort]-is a native of Europe, Barbary, China, Cochinchina, and Japan. With us it grows by road-sides, and in dry sunny pastures. Mr. Miller remarks, "that although Vervain is very common, yet it is never found above a quarter of a mile from a house," whence it has been named by some, Simpler's joy. The fact, however, is not allowed; and Dr. Withering found it in plenty at the foot of St. Vincent's rocks. It begins to flower in July, and continues to the end of autumn.

Vervain was held sacred among the ancients, and was