AST) THEIR CULTURE. 89 



basket with a little Cocoa-nut fibre^ place in a shed, and leave until 

 March without disturbinsr, by which time they are one mass of 

 young bulbletSj thousands having been produced by the old, partially- 

 decayed scales, each little bulblet bearing one or two green leaf 

 blades. 



If we could make ourselves perfectly certain as to which of the 

 cultivated Lilies are wild species or types, and which have been pro- 

 duced by seminal variation and hybridism by the Japanese and Dutch 

 cultivators, we should find the bulb structure of Lilies far more 

 characteristic and tangible than at present, although even now the 

 bulbs of Lilies are quite as well suited as aids to classification, or 

 arrangement of species, as are the corms of Crocuses or Fritillarias. 

 Speaking of Japanese Lily cultivators, it may not be generally known 

 that Lilies and other typical plants (as Iris and PiBonias) have been 

 cultivated and improved by particular families in Japan, just as are 

 Lilies, Hyacinths, Narcissi, and Tulips at present in Holland, only 

 that this culture has been going on in Japan, generation after 

 generation — one might almost add ages; its origin is lost in legends 

 and mythical obscurity. If one could get at translations of Japanese 

 and Chinese gardening and botanical literature, what a world of 

 discovery in plant improvement would be opened up to us, and how 

 much would some of the botanists, even of our own day, have to regret, 

 that they did not give the " inner Celestial '' trade-growers more 

 credit for their skill in originating and fixing sports and seminal 

 varieties, if not sexual and vegetative hybrids ! In referring to the 

 characters of Lily bulbs, it must be owned that in some cases a gTeat 

 difference is observable between the bulbs of two apparently distinct 

 types, or species, but it is impossible to define the difference in words ; 

 and this brings me to a point on which I lay great stress, namely, 

 that in figuring any plant the root-growth should in all cases be 

 included in the drawing, as worthy of equal consideration with the 

 aboveground development of stem and leaves, especially as it is the 

 foundation, whence they spring into hfe and loveliness ; and I feel 

 sure if this practice were adopted in botanical works, many of the 

 now common doubts and misunderstandings as to figures would be pre- 

 vented. Individual bulbs of any species of Lily, like individual 

 Apples or Pears, are very variable, and those who have many Lily 

 bulbs through their hands, are apt to form their ideal of the bulb of 

 any given species from the bulk, taking note of the maximum and 

 minimum variations in a manner of which their ideal bulb is a mean 

 or average. There is, however, a right and wrong method even in 

 this apparently faultless style of estimating variable characters, for it 

 is possible to imagine correctly what the bulb of any species should 

 be from extreme specimens, and to draw or write about it as though 

 one had actually seen such a specimen. In the illustrations to follow, 

 this source of error has been carefully guarded against, and although 



