Seems that tulips caused people to go a bit crazy in 1634 in the country of Netherlands. The bulb, looking like a onion was as prized as diamonds. It got so nobody was planting the pretty posies, they were just buying and selling the bulbs. People used tulips to purchased homes, food, clothing and even horses. Government officials kept a record of tulip purchases. Sadly, one Englishman made a very bad error one day while visiting Netherlands during this time called Tulipmania. After spying a tulip bulb on a table at a home he was visiting, he took a knife and sliced it up. When the owner got into a rage after seeing what the man had done, he screamed ,"Do you know what you have done?" The Englishman replied,"Peeling a most extraordinary onion!" The "onion", an Admiral Van der Eyck tulip, was worth thousands of dollars! The Englishman was led through the streets where mobs followed the man to jail, where he was told he'd have to remain until he paid for the tulip! The tulip craze ended a couple of years later with many people losing their life savings.