October 14, 1876. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



315 



the fruit if well syriuged with pure water; but the green 

 berry is completely killed by it. — W. Vincent. 



PLANTS FOR OUT FLOWERS AND SPRAYS. 



No. 4. 



ALSiECEMEniAS. — ThesB have curiously-formed flowers with 

 delicately-spotted or marbled petals, and being borne upon 

 soft stems they are very enduring in a cut state. They com- 

 menoo blooming in July and continue until September. An 

 open situation is the most suitable, and free from shade. The 

 plants delight in moisture, but yet the soil must be well 

 drained. A soil composed of sandy loam and peat will grow 

 this genus to perfection. Plant the roots from October to 

 November, or early in spring, 9 inches deep, surrounding them 

 with sand, and all they will require after this for a generation 

 is a mulching in autumn of vegetable soil or leaves nearly 

 rotten. A. aurantiaea aurea, orange, with carmine spots ; 

 A. brasiliensis, red, tipped with green ; A. chilensis varies in 

 colour from red to white ; A. psittaoina, crimson and purple 

 spots; A. Hookeri, yellow, with red streaks, are a few of the 

 best varieties. A. pelegrina alba, white, and A. pelegrina 

 rosea, pink, and delicate-striped, are all that need be grown in 

 pots, and they may succeed in front of a south wall if pro- 

 tected. Peat and loam with a fourth of sand will grow them 

 well. They require copious supplies of water in the growing 

 season. 



LiLiCMs. — The powerful odour of some kinds is so unen- 

 durable in a out state in rooms, that I shall not include in this 

 list the splendid L. auratum and the stately L. giganteum. 

 Delightful as may be their perfume diffused through a conser- 

 vatory or in halls, it is quite unbearable in the dining, drawing 

 room, or boudoir. I do not wish to discourage the extended 

 culture of the " King of the Lilies," but advise it to be 

 grown in any quantity in bads or in pots, but as cut flowers 

 their odour is not agreeable, and very unlike that of the beau- 

 tiful L. speciosum or lancifolium and its many varieties, which 

 from their delicate fragrance, purity of colour, beautiful shad- 

 ing and spottiugs, with the fine recurve of the petals, at once 

 claim our attention and admiration. The stamens carrying the 

 yellow or brown pollen add immensely to the beauty of the 

 flower ; but before cutting them the pollen-bearing parts should 

 be removed by taking them between the finger and thumb, or 

 the pollen, by moving the flower about, will come into contact 

 with other blooms and spoil them. 



The Wliitc Lily (Lilium candidum) has large snow-white 

 flowers, and few plants are more truly beautiful or ornamental 

 in garden borders during June. Its odour is powerful, but 

 the blooms used sparingly are admissible in rooms. The 

 double variety is more enduring in a cut state than the single 

 variety. 



L. longijiorum, with its large pure white trumpet-shaped 

 flowers, is very fine and flowers early, but its variety, L. longi- 

 ilorum eximium, has larger and finer flowers, and the plant is 

 also of larger growth. The L. longiflorums, given greenhouse 

 treatment, will flower in May, and as they have foliage in 

 winter they should be duly supplied with water, and have a 

 light and airy position near the glass. In the open ground 

 they do best in rather sheltered situations, as mixed with 

 Rhododendrons, in which beds they succeed admirably, having 

 a mulching of partially decayed leaves in winter. 



For associating with the white Lilinms a fine effect is pro- 

 duced by the fiery scarlet of the Martagon or Tarn- cap 

 (L. chaloedonicum), which has the flowers recurved; whilst the 

 White Martagon (L. Martagon album) is so choice as to tell 

 well intermixed with scarlet zonal Pelargoniums. The double 

 White Martagon (L. Martagon album flore-pleno) is very fine. 

 The Scarlet Pompone (L. pomponium) flowers early in May 

 and June, and is sweet-scented ; the flowers are pendulous. 

 The Colchicum Lily (L. monadelphum Szovitzianum) has fine 

 recurved flowers, having black spots on a citron ground. 

 L. testaceum is a nankeen yellow, and has a fine scent. Fiery 

 are the orange Lilies, formerly L. aurantiacum, but now 

 L. croceum, and still brighter is the variety L. eroceum ful- 

 gidum. I must include also L. Humboldti, golden yellow, 

 spotted with crimson, and L.Leichtlini, yellow, spotted thickly 

 with crimson. Of the fine L. Browni or japonieum, with its 

 white large flowers tinted externally with brownish purple, I 

 must also make note, for it is one of the finest of the trumpet- 

 shaped class, and does well in a peat bed. 



We now come to the Tiger Lily (L. tigrinum), which has 

 muoh-recurved, splendid orange-scarlet flowers, spotted with 



black or very deep crimson brown. L. tigrinum Fortunei is 

 more floriferous, and the double variety (L, tigrinum Fortune! 

 flore-pleno), orange scarlet, and very double; and the very 

 fine L. tigrinum splendens, which is much the finest of the 

 Tiger Lilies must not be omitted. These associated with the 

 varieties of L. speciosum are truly magnificent, and do well in 

 pots, but flower earlier than L. speciosum. L. tigrinum grown 

 under glass will be in flower about the same time as L. au- 

 ratum, and for filling a vase if we have L. tigrinum var. around 

 the margin, and L. auratum blooms in the centre, interspersed 

 with sprays of Bambusa gracilis and B. Fortunei variegata, the 

 effect is superb. L. speciosum in variety is, for cut flowers, the 

 finest of all Liliums, whether we consider its beautiful form, 

 purity of colour, distinct marking, or delicate fragrance ; and 

 by growing under glass, as also in the open ground, its ex- 

 quisite flowers may be had from July to September inclusive. 



Most, or nearly all, Liliums may be grown in pots, but some 

 do not do well, as the Martagon group, and all flower grandly 

 outdoors. Beyond the longiflorum, speciosum, and tigrinum 

 vars., with L. auratum, there is no need to grow in pots, as the 

 Lilium season is surely sufficiently prolonged — viz., from June 

 to October. 



Liliums should be planted outdoors in October, though 

 planting may be performed up to March, the ground being well 

 and deeply dug and enriched with loaf soil and old cow dung. 

 Good loamy soil, if it has a cool bottom but freed of stagaaut 

 water, and containing decayed or decaying matter as peat or 

 vegetable refuse, will grow these plants to perfection, and they 

 will not require attention for many years beyond a dressing of 

 manure or rich compost every autumu, which will protect the 

 bulbs and enrich the soil. Plant t to inches deep ; and if 

 there are beds of low shrubs with suitable openings for plant- 

 ing, three or more bulbs planted in such spaces twice their 

 diameter apart, will, with the flowers towering above the shrubs, 

 have a grand effect. 



In pots it is well to allow a distance of half the diameter of 

 the bulbs from the sides of the pot, and a full diameter between 

 the bulbs. The pots should have, when the bulbs are inserted, 

 space left for a top-dressing of about 2 inches thickness, as 

 from the base of the flower-stem the roots proceed which sup- 

 port the flowers ; this top-dressing should be given when the 

 stems are about 6 inches high. The bulbs should be covered 

 about an inch deep. They may be placed on and surrounded 

 by silver sand. The pots must be well drained, and the com- 

 post be equal parts of turfy loam, leaf soil, and sandy peat, 

 and half a part old cow dung, and a like proportion of silver 

 or sharp sand. The soil being rather moist when used, and 

 the pots placed in a cold pit or greenhouse away from the dry- 

 ing influence of the heating apparatus, will not require water, 

 or very little, until growth takes place, but the soil must not 

 become dust-dry, that being prevented by watering around the 

 inside of the pot, and not pouring it upon the crown of the 

 bulbs. As growth advances water more freely, and when the 

 flower-buds appear weak liquid manure given twice a- week will 

 increase the size of the blooms. If required to flower early 

 the pots should be introduced to a viuery or other house early 

 in January, and at intervals of a month up to April. The 

 first will flower in May or early in June, and a succession will 

 be kept up until those in a cool greenhouse come in early in 

 August. — G. Abbey. 



NOTES ON THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH 



(lipaeis chrysorrhceus). 

 Wheee the Brown-tail occurs it is found in profusion nearly 

 invariably from its habit of colonising, so to speak. And 

 therein, as it seems, is one of the most notable distinctions 

 between it and the closely allied Gold-tail. While the larva 

 of the Brown-tail lives gregariously almost throughout its life 

 (for as a rule they keep together until they spin their cocoons 

 tor pupation, though now and then a brood will scatter after 

 the last change of skin), that of the Gold-tail (L. auriflual is 

 solitary in habit, or well-nigh so. As the eggs are laid in 

 patches the young larvx keep together a little at first, but they 

 scatter off long before the winter sets in ; and when the time 

 for hybernation arrives each spins his lonely habitation, and, 

 hermit-like, abides until the spring calls forth fresh leaves on 

 the Hawthorn. Two species, therefore, so much resembliug 

 each other in the imago state as to be chiefly known apart by 

 the colour of the anal tuft, golden in one species, golden brown 

 in the other, are thus notably distinguished by the habits of 

 the larva. In markings the larva of the two also differ more 



