^s^. 



3Ji^iO 



i:.s LILIUM TIIOMPSONIANUM. 



'llio uiontioii of JfichaiLrn Si/li'u roiniiids us to say tli.it :i iii>w edition of tliat 

 invaluable work h;is been called for by the j)ubIio, and is just ready for issue. It ir 

 entirely indispensable to the student of arboriculture, and liavinj^ the advantage of 

 new American notes, it is becoming the vade viccum of all who plant. The newspapers 

 herald the advent of a Jennv Lixd or a Giusi, as evidence of our social advancement 

 and liberality in the expenditure of money ; they pull" away at these and similar sur- 

 face polishings in perfect ignorance of this great book, which is penetrating to our 

 most distant settlements, and diffusing taste and information where Guisi and Mario 

 can never teach, and where \i?< results will live for the admiration of future generations 

 when the very names of "dear Jenny" and our present visitors will be furgntten.* 



We cannot but wish, sometimes, that our newspapers would devote a little corner 

 to country aflairs; we should so like our visitors from the great cities when they come 

 to see us, to know a ^Yillow from a Deodar, or even a Larch from a I'ine; but no! 

 they go on from generation to generation, in entire ignorance of what constitutes rus- 

 tic beauty and ornament; they travel thousands of miles to get a peep at some land- 

 scape from a mountain height, the ingredients of which, its geological and arboricul- 

 tural treasures they are entirely ignorant of. How much more pleasure would they 

 enjoy, if they had instructed themselves to observe and admire the beauties of nature. 

 "We, as a people, know too little of Astronomy, of. Geology, and of Botany; and we 

 shall so continue till our teachers of youth know something themselves of these sci- 

 ences. It is too amusing to see our city teachers with their scholars on a pic-nic in 

 the country; they cannot tell the young and inquiring youths the name of a single 

 tree, unless indeed, they find chestnuts, or acorns beneath them ! This must be altered ; 

 no teacher should pass an examination at a Normal School, unless he can tell a Currant 

 bush from a Magnolia, vhen neither have fiuit or flower. 



TUE LILIUM TIIOMPSOXIAXUM, (Dr. Thompson's Lily). 



We find a colored drawing and a description of this Lily in the Flore des Serrcs. 

 It was discovered more than thirty years ago, by the celebrated Dr. Wallicii, or by 

 collectors in his service, in the mountains of Gossain-Than, and Kamaon, and redis- 

 covered a long time afterwards by Dr. Royle, at Mussoree. It bloomed for the first 

 time in Europe in the greenhouses of Messrs. Loddiges, in London, in 1844, and the 

 specimen from which this drawing was made, in the Kew Gardens, in April, 1853. 

 It was produced from seeds collected at Almora, 8000 feet above the sea level, by 

 Messrs. Thompson & Setraciiey. Dr. Royle placed it among Fritillaria, but 



• It is some evidence of our advance that expensive boolts like MicnAtrx at twenty-four dollars, and Nuttall's three 

 additional volumes at twenty-one, are taken off lo remote Slates with the rapidity lliey are. Even at these seeming- 

 ly high prices they conld not be manufactured, and so superbly colored, but tb;it tlio plates were oldained from Paris 

 gratuitously by the liberality of the late William Maclure, for the benefit of his countrymen. By this he has done 

 much for America; we will not stop to contrast his conduct with the much bepuffed speculations of a * * * * and a 

 * * * *, but we are proud to believe that there is a little aristocracy of readers of the Horticulturist, who estimate 

 things by their right standards. 



