A complete history of the tulip and its commercial cultivation, which describes, in great detail, how a wild flower of the Asian steppes has become something of a world-wide horticultural phenomenon. Taking us from Asia Minor through India, Russia and the Ottoman Empire, this is a story which charts political upheaval, illuminates social behaviour, and describes how the tulip became a symbol in times of religious persecution. On a more rigorously botanical note, eighty species of wild tulip and hundreds of garden varieties are described. Colour and b/w illus throughout.