6 NOTES ON LILIES 



soil, but they twine themselves in and out among the scales, suck 

 out the sap, and destroy the bulbs for the next season's bloom. 

 Rose growers wage war against suckers coming up, Lily growers 

 should wage war against suckers going down. Every now and then 

 remove the soil for 1 or 2 inches deep, and then carefully clip off 

 every vestige of a stem root, returning the soil again. A professional 

 writer says, ' As the flower stems advance in growth they put forth 

 a number of young roots fi'om the stem above the bulb, when that is 

 perceived place round each stem some rough hard ])ieces of manure 

 for these roots to strike into ; this will encourage the flower stems to 

 grow strongly and flower firmly, besides increasing very much the 

 size of the bulbs below.' Worse advice than this it is difficult even 

 to imagine." 



Those of my readers who have followed mo so far will see that my 

 ideas on this subject are totally opposed to those of Dunedin. 

 Nature^ who is never wasteful, would not have given these Lilies 

 such a wig of roots were they not required for a purpose ; everything 

 has its use, and that of these stem roots is, I have endeavoured to 

 prove, to support, strengthen, and develope the stem, foliage, and 

 buds. 



To compare Rose suckers (which would if let alone form separate- 

 plants) with Lily roots, or, as he writes, suckers which can never 

 form a separate plant, is ridiculous, and to recommend Lily growers 

 to clip off the stem roots when such magnificent plants as those 

 described (chap, iv.) at Oatlands, Weybridge, can be groA\Ti without 

 any such meddling, would be simply an absurdity. 



I have mentioned this fallacy of Dunedin's simply to caution my 

 readers not to follow it. 



But it is also possible for the bulb to be absorbed itself by the act 

 of flowering. Of this we have seen many instances when, not knowing 

 better, we potted Aurafum bulbs in small pots, raising the bulbs above 

 the soil, like a Hyacinth. In the autumn we saw our error. The 

 flowers bloomed, but the bulbs dried up. The pots being small, the 

 upper roots emitted could not obtain sufficient moisture from the soil, 

 and the bulb was sucked dry to produce a flower. 



We quote another instance in point. A fi-iend lately informed us 

 that some Auratum bulbs, planted in small pots, and plunged in 

 cocoa-fibre, on the leads of his house, had flowered beautifully. Not 

 a stem had turned brown, but the bulbs, on examination at the close 

 of the season, had disappeared, though the roots were abundant and 

 healthy. Here, as the pots were plunged in cocoa-fibre and watered 

 well, there was plenty of moisture, but being small, nourishment 

 could only be obtained by the roots by feeding upon the bulbs. 



Such, therefore, we believe to be the cause of the disease referred 

 to — deficient root action and insufficient supply of moisture. And 

 we go further, convinced by our own experience, and say that the 



