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 centre. It was introduced there by Portuguese Jews after the sack of Antwerp in 1576, but its great development dates from about the middle of the nineteenth century. There are now some seventy factories, employing about 12,000 operatives. Visitors are allowed to visit some of these works on payment of a small fee, and, in some cases, if properly vouched for by some well-known resident.

The cultivation of bulbs is carried on on an extensive scale, and in days gone by the tulip had about it a halo of romance, and gave rise to as frantic speculations as were witnessed in the days of the South Sea Bubble. Then followed the inevitable crash, and to-day the Dutchman cultivates the beautiful flower as others do the potato, and without any vision of producing a “black tulip.” This “philosopher's stone” in the realm of tulipdom remains to be