AND THEIR CULTUEE. 69 



plants, in which the soil consisted mostly of peat, with a slight admixture 

 of loam and leaf-mould. In the summer it made a vigorous growth of 

 foliage, which was nearly all cut down in the succeeding winter. Last 

 spring a rich display of foliage was produced from three or four crowns^ 

 one of which threw up a strong flowering stem, nearly 3 inches in diameter 

 at the base, 7 feet high, and bearing thirteen flowers all of which ripened 

 seed. 



" Duiung the last year it seems to have quite doubled in size, and now 

 forms a mass of seven or eight crowns, which are commencing to throw 

 up foliage. The plant seems perfectly hardy under a most trying winter. 

 My garden is 600 feet above the sea level, and during the last foar months 

 we have had a continual alternation of severe frosts and sudden thaws. 

 The clump of L. Giganteum has had no artificial protection save a thin 

 sprinkling of cocoanut fibre, but the partial shelter afforded by the 

 Andromedas, amongst which my Lilies have been planted, has, I' doubt 

 not, been effective in sheltering them from excessive summer heats and 

 winter frosts. Under such circumstances I believe the whole of the Lilies 

 would be perfectly hardy in the open-air, and an undergrowth of small 

 ornamental evergreens (Kalmias, Andromedas, Sedums, Heaths, and small 

 Rhododendrons) adds much to the effect of a bed of Lilies which would 

 otherwise be unsightly except during a few weeks from June to August. 

 In a mixture of rich peat and leaf-mould, strengthened with a little loam, 

 nothing can exceed the vigour with which nearly all the known species of 

 Lily thrive with me in the open-air, and the increase in the size of the 

 bulbs is much more rapid than under pot culture. I flowered last year 

 upwards of twenty species in the same bed as that containing Giganteum; 

 Pardallnuiii, which was a single small bulb two and a half years ago, 

 produced four stems between 7 and 8 feet high, which, collectively, bore 

 eighty-seven blossoms ; and SzovUzianum twenty-eight flowers on a 

 single stem. Vmbellatum, and many other species were equally luxuriant, 

 the only species that did not succeed with me in the open-air yvcvQ A%irainm 

 and varieties of Specioswn, but this I think was due to bad condition of the 

 bulbs." — George Mate, Benthall Hall, Broseleij, Garden, vol. 7, p. 218, 



" I have now in flower a specimen of L. Giganteum. The flower stem 

 is 9 feet 1 inch in height, and 6 inches in circumference at 2 feet 

 from the ground; it bears eleven flowers, nine of which are fully developed 

 at the time I am writing, and the others just unfolding. Each flower is 

 about 8 inches in length. The effect of this plant is extremely fine, and 

 situate, as it is, in a bed of Rhododendrons, the flat heads of these rather 

 add than otherwise to its stately and majestic appearance. After flowering, 

 the bulbs die ; but perpetuate themselves by throwing up each one or more 

 offsets. The one in flower here, is an offset from one which flowered in 

 a greenhouse in 1872, and, in the autumn of that year, was planted out of 

 doors in the situation it now occupies. In 1873, it increased considerably 

 in size, and made two more offsets ; in 1874, three more were made, and 

 the others much increased in size, so that, when growth commenced this 

 season, there were six bulbs of different ages, the oldest of which (three 

 years), is now in flower as above described. There will be, I hope, two 

 bulbs sufficiently strong to flower next year, and of course, others following 



