tulip (tulip)

[Formerly also tulipe, tulipie, also tulip a; = MD. tulpe, D. tulp = G. tulpe = Ir. tulp, E. tulipant, etc., NL. tulip a, etc., a turban: see tur ban. ] 1. A plant of the genus Tulipa, of which several species are well-known garden bulbs with highly colored bell-shaped flowers, blooming in spring. The common garden tulips are derived chiefly from T. Gesneriana, a native of central and southern Europe and adjacent parts of Asia, having shining scarlet flowers with purple-black spots at the base of the divisions, or a partly yellow claw. Varieties of this species have been developed with great care, especially in the Netherlands, the seat at one time of a "tulipomania." The catalogue of a Haarlem florist of recent date offered 1,800 varieties. They are divided into four cla es: namely, breeders" or "self-flowers," with the natural plain color; "bizarres," having a clear yellow ground with red, brownish, maroon, or purple markings; "byblæmens," with a white background marked prevailingly with red or shades of purple; and "roses," with white background variegated with shades of rose-color, deep-red, or scarlet. It is said that when a self-tulip once "breaks," the new variety remains always the same. Another long-cultivated tulip is the Duc Van Thol, T. suaveolens, with fragrant scarlet, yellow, or variegated flowers, early, and especially suited for pot-culture and forcing. T. præcox, having scarlet flowers with large black-purple spots surrounded with yellow near the base, also affords varieties. Le conspicuous or le known species are T. Oculus - sol is, the sun's-eye tulip, with a brilliant scarlet perianth, having black spots at the base of the segments; T. australis ( T. Celsiana ), with bright-yellow flowers smaller than the common kinds; T. Clusiana, low and delicate, having the three inner divisions pure white, the three outer stained with pink; T. pulchella, type of a group of very pretty dwarf species; and T. Greigi, the Turkestan tulip, one of the most showy and desirable of all known tulips, bearing goblet-shaped flowers, commonly of a vivid orange-scarlet hue, also purple or yellow, from 4 to 6 inches broad when fully expanded. 2. In ordnance, a bell-shaped outward swell of Cowper , Tirocinium, 1. 783. the muzzle of a gun, as a rule abandoned in 4. The fee for instruction. The tuition is usually low. The Century , XXXIX. 474. =Syn. 3. Tuition differs from the words compared under instruction chiefly in being a rather formal and busine like word: as, the charge for tuition is $100: it represents the act or series of acts, but not the art.