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                          Transcriber’s note:

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                        DUTCH BULBS AND GARDENS

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                       _UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_

                                GARDENS
                               OF ENGLAND

                             BY E. T. COOK

                    WITH 20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
                              IN COLOUR BY

                            BEATRICE PARSONS

                            A. AND C. BLACK,
                        SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.


                                 AGENTS

           AMERICA     THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                         64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

           AUSTRALASIA THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
                         205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE

           CANADA      THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
                         27 RICHMOND STREET WEST, TORONTO

           INDIA       MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
                         MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
                         309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA

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[Illustration: HET LOO]

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                              DUTCH BULBS
                              AND GARDENS

                               PAINTED BY

                               MIMA NIXON

                              DESCRIBED BY

                     UNA SILBERRAD AND SOPHIE LYALL

[Illustration]

                                 LONDON
                         ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
                                  1909

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                                   TO

                           MY DEAREST FRIEND

                            GERTRUDE CROFTON

                IN MEMORY OF HAPPY DAYS SPENT IN HOLLAND

                       WHICH WE SAW TOGETHER FOR

                             THE FIRST TIME

                                                             MIMA NIXON.

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                                PREFACE


Miss Nixon wishes me to present her humble duty and thanks to Her
Majesty, the Queen of the Netherlands, for graciously honouring her
with the permission to make drawings of Her Majesty’s Summer Palace and
Gardens at Het Loo.

Miss Nixon also wishes me to thank His Excellency Baron Sistema van
Grövestins for his kindness in procuring for her the privilege of
access to the Royal Gardens at Het Loo, and to thank the Rt. Hon. Sir
Horace Rumbold, Bart., P.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., for his kind help.

Her thanks are also due to Mr. W. H. Wind, Her Majesty’s Head Gardener
at Het Loo; to Miss van der Laan, Bennebroek; and to Messrs. Tubergen,
Kersten, Krelager, Roozen, and the other growers at Haarlem.

I wish to thank Mr. Thomas Hoog of Haarlem, who helped me in the
compiling of the following pages by supplying much valuable
information, which I trust I have not too greatly mishandled.

                                                       UNA L. SILBERRAD.

_March 1, 1909._

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                                CONTENTS

                          BY UNA L. SILBERRAD


                                                   PAGE
                               CHAPTER I

                ON GETTING THERE                      1

                               CHAPTER II

                CROCUS AND EARLY SPRING FLOWERS      28

                              CHAPTER III

                HYACINTH OR IRIS?                    47

                               CHAPTER IV

                SOME OLD FAVOURITES AND NEW          68

                               CHAPTER V

                THE ARISTOCRAT OF THE BULB GARDENS   83

                               CHAPTER VI

                BULB BARNS, NAMES, AND GROWERS      104

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                               APPENDICES

                            BY SOPHIE LYALL


                                                          PAGE

                                   I

          HYACINTH CULTURE AT HAARLEM IN THE EIGHTEENTH    121
          CENTURY


                                   II

          THE TULIP TRADE, FROM DE KONING’S “HISTORY OF    168
          HAARLEM” (1635)


                                  III

          THE HYACINTH TRADE, FROM DE KONING’S “TAFEREEL   171
          DER STAD HAARLEM” (1808)


          INDEX                                            173

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                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


     1. Het Loo                                      _Frontispiece_

                                                        FACING PAGE

     2. The “Berceau,” Het Loo                                    8

     3. Palace Gardens, Het Loo