Tulbi (Tulp)
Tulip, Tulipa spp. In the chapter on ‘Tulipomania’ in 17th‑C Holland, Charles Mackay’s Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds relates the story of a sailor who casually pocketed an ‘onion’ he saw lying about to go with his lunch. When, half a herring later, he was eventually discovered, it turned out he’d eaten a tulip bulb valued, at the bubbling rates, of about 25 oxen or 30 tons of butter. Probably far better for his cholesterol level. One of the Lilleküla flower street-name group. See Tulika.
