1882. 



AND HORTICULTURISl. 



135 



porter, and will probably appear in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Society. It would be too long for 

 the Gardener's Monthly, even if written out. 

 Perhaps the annexed very good abstract made 

 by the reporter of the Bucks Co. Intelligencer, will 

 satisfy our correspondent : 



'' Thomas Meehan, editor of the Gardener's 

 Monthly, talked very interestingly about 'Lilies 

 and other bulbs and how to grow them.' It was 

 important to be successful in growing fruits, 

 vegetables and grain that you may make money, 

 h-e said, else you could more easily and better 

 buy them ; but what was the object of gaining 

 money in this or any other way ? We could eat 

 but a certain amount, and wear but a certain 

 amount. One of the most laudable objects was 

 to surround yourselves withbeauty which you and 

 others could enjoy. Our physical comfort de- 

 manded beauty; and comfort, after a few of the 

 essentials of life, depended much on the imagi- 

 nation. Fremont's men, when nearly frozen in 

 the Rocky Mountains, ate in an Indian hut what 

 they supposed to be dried tish, with great relish. 

 When, however, they learned they had been eat- 

 ing dried worms, they sickened with the idea. 

 Likewise, the Indian would believe a mess almost 

 perfection, until it was whispered to him there was 

 dog meat in it, and he toowould become sick. You 

 must cultivate the beautiful, the ideal, or you lose 

 half the value of life. They add charms the 

 practical cannot alwaj's give. Oscar Wilde says 

 we love the lily only for its beauty. This I think 

 a mistake. There are associations connected 

 with it which add to its value. The imagination 

 comes in to lend a charm — it is one of the oldest 

 of known flowers, its history goes back two thou- 

 sand years, its meaning is the ' Flower of all 

 flowers. ' The ancients claimed for it divine 

 origin — their tradition being that it grew from a 

 globule of milk dropped by Juno ; hence its puri- 

 ty. There are lessons in the formation and habits 

 of the flower that are useful to the fruit growers. 

 The same causes that produce colored leaves in 



the autumn produce flowers earlier. Color is 

 not caused altogether by chemical action. It is 

 the different degrees of heat that cause leaf and 

 flower; the flower grows through the winter; it 

 takes less heat to make a flower bud than a leaf 

 bud ; hence you should discourage the growth of 

 flower buds in winter. Late in the fall these 

 buds on the peach and other trees begin to swell, 

 and they grow all winter. If they grow too fast 

 the frosts kill them, but the leaf buds do not grow 

 and are never killed — hence whatever will retard 

 the growth of buds will benefit the trees. Mulching 

 will often prove of benefit, in keeping the sun's 

 rays and air from the roots. The growth of plants 

 is not continuous as is generally supposed. It is 

 by waves they grow and rest ; until a lily flower is 

 fertilized it droops; hence when the lily first 

 opens it bends towards the earth ; as soon as 

 fertilized it changes its position and turns out 

 from the stock, and if it is to seed, becomes 

 erect. This knowledge is important to those 

 desiring to change the character of plants by 

 fertilization. They need not wait years to know 

 if the cross was effective. The lily family is of 

 Arctic origin. Its main home is near the re- 

 gions of perpetual snow. In Siberia and the 

 northern part of China and Japan they abound, 

 while at the Gulf of Mexico there is but one 

 species. This must be remembered in planting 

 the lily. It wants a cool, moist place, and should 

 be planted deep, that the sun may not injure the 

 roots ; six inches is not too deep. The root is 

 subject to fungus, which is very destructive. 

 The growers understand this in Japan where 

 they propagate these plants ; hence they are en- 

 cased in clay that they may be entirely pro- 

 tected from its contact. It would be well for 

 those growing lilies here to remember this, and 

 use nothing but well rotted manure. Lilies may 

 be propagated slowly by offsets, but florists un- 

 derstand a quicker way of getting a supply ; 

 they separate the scales of the bulb and plant 

 each scale. New bulbs form on them and new 

 plants are started." 



Greenhouse and House Gardening. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



TROPICAL ORCHIDS IN OPEN AIR OF 

 SUMMER. 



In the April number of the Gardener's 

 Monthly, Mr. Taplin wants to know if " C. H. 

 S." haa had any experience in growing orchids 



under the shade of trees in the summer. About 

 eight years ago a friend of mine went to Europe 

 in June, and requested me to give a little atten- 

 tion to his plants until he came back in Septem- 

 ber. I found that he had put his orchids, about 

 one hundred and fifty plants, on a long table to 

 the north side of his house, where the sun only 

 came for a couple of hours in the morning. 

 There was a thick awning but this was only run 



