The Wild English Tulip
Last year I was able, by some judicious scepticism, to satisfy myself that the wild English gladiolus was not a myth. In response to a note on this page many correspondents wrote to say that they had seen it growing in Hampshire ; and one, the Town Clerk of Romsey, had the kindness to send a few fresh sprays of flowers, delicate magenta pink, one day last summer. I would now like to do for Tulipa Sylvestris, the little yellow wild English tulip, what I have done for the gladiolus. My scepticism this time, however, is really genuine. As far back as 1790 Sowerby noted that no writer before him had included this tulip in the catalogue of English wild flowers, and himself included it " by the observations of the Rev. Mr. Mathew, who favoured us with this specimen from an old chalk-pit near Bury." He recorded it also as having been found, again in a chalk pit, near Norwich. Various nineteenth- century works continued to include it, but contemporary writers, so far as I can gather, no longer mention it. It flowers in April ; is small, yellow and sweetly scented ; has pale narrow leaves ; droops its flower a little like a fritillary. I hope someone has had the luck to have seen it.
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