COUNTRY LIFE
The Wild Tulip My query as to the existence in England of the wild tulip (Tulipa Sylvestris), made a fortnight ago, has met with unex- pected success. Many correspondents have written reporting it from as far north as East and West Lothian and as far west as Somerset, and as far back in the last century as 187o. To all these correspondents I am very grateful. Among them was Miss V. Sackville West, tiho reported having seen it in the grass of an old orchard in Hampshire—the exact locality I shall naturally not give. Two other correspondents reported it from Hampshire, two from Dorset, two from Somerset, one from Yorkshire and two from Suffolk ; Miss Sackville West had heard of it also from Bedfordshire, which is pleasant news to me. Perhaps the two most charming correspondents were also the oldest, a lady and a gentleman, neither afraid of admitting age, the gentleman sending a detailed report of the tulip from his Yorkshire school herbarium, " date the later 'seventies, perhaps earlier " ; the lady wisely remarking that the home of the tulip in Dorset is " a very precious secret ; kept, especially perhaps, from gentlemen of the Press, who have not as a class the reputation of discretion," hoping, I think, that at least one would belie that description, which he does. By far the most interesting letter came from Hampshire, reporting how a young couple had bought some land, built a house and had been astonished, before their garden had had time to be made, by the appearance everywhere of the wild tulip, which villagers reported had always been there. Bulbs were very deep, " an immense depth down," and at the base of one clump was found a Roman coin of the period of Trajan. Finally a lady from Berkshire sent details of the tulip in a series of charming pencil sketches, and from Scotland came two bulbs in flower.
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