114 



HORTICULTURE 



August 7, 1920 



RAMBLING OBSERVATIONS OF 

 A ROVING GARDENER 



1 find the Regal lily in gardens 

 everywhere now, and wherever it is 

 grown It proves an attraction. I think 

 that no lily is better adapted to subur- 

 ban gardens, even though only a few 

 bulbs can be planted. This was 

 shown the past week or two in Wor- 

 .cester, Mass., where three giant stalks 

 of this lily flowered along the front of 

 the porch at the home of -Joseph H. 

 Perry, 276 Highland St. On the tallest 

 stalk there were twelve blossoms and 



six on each of the others. They emit- 

 ted a fragrance which could be de- 

 tected for a long distance, and a great 

 many people stopped to admire the 

 flowers. 



Another Worcester woman who 

 grows these bulbs, but in a larger way. 

 is Mrs. Homer Gage, whose summer 

 home at Iristhorpe, in Shrewsbury, is 

 one of the show places of that section. 

 Mr. Perry's specimens are only a gen- 

 eration from the original bulbs which 

 were brought back from the border- 



land of Thibet by Professor E. H. Wil- 

 son, of the Arnold Arboretum. So 

 much attention do these flowers at- 

 tract that almost half a column was 

 given to them in the Worcester Ga- 

 zette, the writer describing the intro 

 duction of the lily as follows: 



The discoverer was Ernest H. 

 Wilson of the Arnold Arboretum at 

 .lamaica Plain, who was on one of his 

 periodic exploring expeditions in 

 China, seeking rare plant life for the 

 Arboretum, and especially new lilies, 

 upon which he is an authority. Per- 

 haps he was the first white man to 

 gaze upon the Regal lily. He had 

 traveled l.SOO miles up the Yangtsze 

 river and 2.50 miles beyond up its trib- 

 utary, the Ming, to the confines of the 

 mysterious Thibet. There, in a nar- 

 row, arid valley, 7,200 feet above the 



I.ark8pors at Their Best 



