AND TKEIR CULTURE. 187 



three or four years after planting-, as patches that have been undisturbed^ 

 flower much better, and grow taller than those fresh planted. Why ? 

 For the same reason as already stated, too late planting- in the first 

 instance. 



§ 2. " As regards the evils of late planting, it would be folly to attempt to 

 transplant the White Lily [L. Candidam) in October, as it will then be 

 making active growth, and if the roots be disturbed, it will have the effect 

 of wholly, or partially, preventing its flowering next year. This remark 

 holds good with regard to all Lilies,* with the exception of a very few 

 late-flowering ones. We see the green tufts of leaves shooting up from 

 the White Lily bulbs before October arrives, and we can therefore imagine 

 the activity that must be going on beneath the surface of the soil. W^ith 

 regard to other Lilies, we cannot see this, l)ut experiments can lay open 

 the mysterious underground working-s of Nature, as plainly as the green 

 tufts of leaves can be seen by the naked eye. At the end of June, 187t^, 

 I lifted and transplanted a number of White Lilies ; they bloomed well 

 during the next summer, if not better than those which had not been 

 disturbed. At the end of October in the same year, I lifted and trans- 

 planted a few bulbs, each of five different sorts, including the White Lily ; 

 only three stems out of all I had transplanted came up the following 

 season, and even these did not show the slightest signs of bloom. So 

 much for early and late planting. The method of reproduction is different 

 in different plants, but, as a general principle, it may be stated that a 

 parent bulb is charged with the function of liberating germs or seed- 

 buds,t which vegetate as soon as brought into a condition fitted for their 

 growth. And this is, in general, about eight or ten days after the flowers 

 of the parent bulb have faded.;*; It is very soon after this time, that we 

 are enabled, by experiment, to observe the phenomenon called " the 

 three generations in one^'' that is, the parent h}db, noio destined hy Nature to 

 •perish, the new bulb luithin it, which is destined to bloom next summer, and. 

 the seed bud v;ithin the new bidb, which is destined to flower the year after that. 

 From this, it will be seen that a Lily is not an annual, nor is it a biennial, 

 but a part of both, two years comprising the period of its existence from 

 birth to death ; it is certainly not a perennial, as some have called it. 

 These seed-buds, as soon as they can be discerned, even by the aid of a 

 magnifying glass, can, by a simple, though necessarily protracted, 



* Dmiedin's asst-ition is a little too sweeping, niucli depends on the cliaraoter of the 

 season, whether tine or dn-, wet or cold, early or late ; we should prefer planting after 

 the first autumnal showers had begun to soften the ground, and before the later and 

 heavier rains had stimulated root growtli. In some years, Lily planting may be done 

 well at the end of August and September, in other seasons, a month or six weeks later 

 will suit better. L. CuMlidum and one or two others are exeeptions to tliis rule, they 

 start in the autumn, and their foliage is persistent all the winter. The majority of 

 Lilies push up their foliage in April and May. 



t With Dunedin's use of the term seed-bud, I do not agree ; germs, offshoots, bulbils, 

 or bulblets are admissable, as ap^died to axillary or root-stock buds, but the term seed-bud 

 is a misnomer. 



X A good time to remove Lily Indljs. But I should not consider them to be proi>erly 

 matured and fit for removal, during the period of intlorescence. From a fortnight after 

 the flowers have iaded, to a month, if the weather be dry, is the best time ; after that 

 jieriod, growth will ensue as soon as the first heavy rain-fall takes place. 



