56 . NOTES ON LILIES 



and aljuudaiit moisture must bo jn-ovided daily during the period of 

 growth. 8. The Japanese plant their bulbs sideways, to prevent the 

 wet lodging between the scales and rotting the bulbs. They use 

 also a top dressing of night soil during the winter months ; but from 

 what I learn, they do not produce such fine blooms as we do in 

 Em-ope. 9, If from circumstances, bulbs have to be planted after 

 Christmas : then to avoid sunscorching, and to afford the best chance 

 for making new growth, plant in a moist place, whore the foliage 

 will be shaded during the greater part of the day, and do not let the 

 plants flower — or at most, boar only one flower-bud — this will give 

 the best chance for healthy growth, and bloom in the year succeeding. 

 Alexander Wallace, Colchester. 



"The advice given by Dr. Wallace as to Ihe use of large pots requires 

 some qualification. For example, if a small bulb be placed in the mass of 

 soil contained in a large pot, the chances are that much of the soil will 

 become sour before its rootlets reach the sides or bottom of the pot, and 

 then the decay of the root-fibres is the result. Mr. G. F. Wilson suggests 

 that after having well di-ained the pot, it should be filled with peat and 

 fibrous loam in layers, since the Lil^' roots feed on the Loam greedily, 

 which in its turn is kept sweet and fresh by the antiseptic property of the 

 intervening layers of peat. Other growers use half-bushel pots, about 

 one-third of their depth being filled with an inverted pot and abimdance 

 of crocks, and eight or ten good bulbs of Humholdtii, NeiUjherrense, or 

 other Lilies are then planted in a fresh, porous compost of fibrous loam, leaf- 

 mould, peat, and sand, the result being that the body of soil, although large, 

 is soon filled by healthy roots, and is prevented from becoming soddened 

 by the ample drainage provided. The cool bottom, so essential to the 

 well-being of all Lilies, is provided by placing the pots on moist soil 

 mulched with cocoa-nut fibre or spent tan. A more copious supply of 

 water is requisite in the case of pots drained as above described, bat it is 

 far more easy to give plants water or liquid manure than to remedy any 

 injurious influence exerted by stagnant or soddened compost. It may be 

 safelj- said that no Lily bulb blooms twice from the same centre, and 

 although most of the Japan Lilies seem to produce flower-stems from the 

 same bulb (on closer examination we find that the flower-stalks spring 

 from new buds formed within the old bulb every season), they are, in I'act, 

 new bulbs formed within the parent one, hut remain attached to the same 

 base, drawing in part sustenance from the surrounding scales, which are 

 only undeveloped leaves. TJie common American Lilies, such as Superhimi, 

 Canadeasc, and Fhiladelphicum, found growing in low meadows, are 

 perpetuated in quite a different manner. The bulbs are produced on large 

 subterranean stems growing a few inches below the soil. This stem 

 lengthens and produces one .or more new bulbs every year, those formed 

 the previous year blooming but once, then commencing to- decay, their 

 substance being attracted by the younger growth. In digging up one of 

 these Lilies we sometimes find a string- of bulbs of various ao^es all 

 attached to the creeping stem, but only the last-formed or youngest will 



