Among genuine connoisseurs genuine sales would of course be made, and it is recorded that a "Semper Augustus" bulb was once bought for 13,000 florins.

At last the Government interfered; gambling was put down; and "Semper Augustus" fell to fifty florins.
It was to Haarlem, it will be remembered, that the fair Frisian travelled with Cornelius van Baerle's solitary flower in _La Tulipe Noire_, and won the prize of 100,000 florins offered for a blossom of pure nigritude by the Horticultural Society of Haarlem.

Hence the addition of the Tulipa Nigra Rosa Baerleensis to the list of desirable bulbs.

Dumas puts into the mouth of Cornelius a very charming song of the tulip:-- Nous sommes les filles du feu secret, Du feu qui circule dans les veines de la terre; Nous sommes les filles de l'aurore et de la rosee, Nous sommes les filles de l'air, Nous sommes les filles de l'eau; Mais nous sommes avant tout les filles du ciel.
The Dutch are now wholly practical.

Their reputation as gardeners has become a commercial one, resting upon the fortunate discovery that the tulip and the hyacinth thrive in the sandy soil about Haarlem.