i 7 8 



needed to determine to what extent the day lilies described as 

 species are really good species or are merely clonal strains. 



Day lilies have a place in the flower garden. There is scarcely 

 a group of flowering ornamentals that can be grown so easily in 

 the temperate regions and is so free from insect pests and fungous 

 diseases. Although a single flower usually lasts but one day there 

 is a succession of flowers day after day and large well-developed 

 plants, such as shown in Figure I, will produce a large number 

 of flowers during many days of bloom. The attractive grass-like 

 foliage comes early in the season and remains fresh and green 

 until autumn. The day lilies are especially effective in mixed 

 border plantings to which they will contribute a mass of rich 

 coloring in their due season. 



Possibly the progress thus far made in the improvement of the 

 day lilies is, after all, a mere beginning. Now that crosses in- 

 volving Hemerocallis fulva have been accomplished, perhaps 

 further hybridization will more readily follow. Many new colors 

 or color patterns are possible — such as pure white and blotched 

 or spotted types of flowers. At any rate the breeding of these day 

 lilies at The New York Botanical Garden will be continued and 

 extended and attention will be given to the production of new 

 double-flowered types. The most desirable of the new forms 

 will be propagated as clonal varieties, named, and in due time 

 distributed. 



A. B. Stout. 



SEEDS : THEIR TRICKS AND TRAITS 1 



The fairy tale of the germination of three thousand year old 

 wheat from the tombs of the Egyptian Pharaohs was exploded 

 some years ago. Authentic records show that wheat under usual 

 conditions of storage does not retain its vitality over twenty years. 

 Many records on the other hand show very much greater longev- 

 ity than this for various other seeds. Not the least interesting of 

 these records is one just published by Ohga, a Japanese botanist. 

 He has excavated from the Pulantien Plain of South Manchuria 



1 Abstract <>f an illustrated lecture given in the Museum Building of 

 The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday afternoon, July iS, [925, by 

 tin I lirectdr of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research. 



