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T U L I P A fylveftris.
Wild Tulip.
H E X A N D R I A Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Corolla of fix petals, bell-thaped. Style
none.
Spec. Char. Flower folitary, fomewhat drooping.
Leaves lanceolate. Stigma obtufe, triangular.
Stamina hairy near the bafe.
Syn. Tulipa fylveftris. Linn. Sp. P I. 4 38 . F I. Suec.
N . 284.
N o writer on Britith plants has hitherto noticed the wild
Tulip; but we are encouraged to give it as a native, or at leaft
a naturalized fpecies, by the obfervations of W. Mathew, Efq.
who favoured us with this fpecimen from an old chalk-pit near
Bury; as well as by the opinion of the late very accurate and
learned Mr. Rofe of Norwich, and of Dr. Smith, who have
both found it in a chalk-pit near that city. It grows in a bed
of good mould, above the chalk, the roots lying feveral inches
below the furface, and flowers in April.
The circumftances moft remarkable about this fpecies, and
which abundantly diftinguifh it from the garden Tulipa Gef-
neriana, are the narrow leaves, the nodding flower, the hairi-
nefs at the bafe of the ftamina, and on the tips of the petals,
and efpecially the Ample obtufe form of the ftigma, which
is totally different from that of the garden tulip. The flower
too is fragrant, and the pollen yellow, not black. The an-
therse are remarkably long. In Flora Danica, t. 375, they are
reprefented Ihort and round. Linnaeus has given an excellent
concife hiftory of this plant, in his Flora Suecica above quoted.