xxill RIVERSIDE LETTERS 179 



main dormant in the ground for a whole 

 season, springing up and flourishing the 

 next year apparently all the stronger for 

 their rest. About five years ago I planted 

 two bulbs of a lily called Pomponium 

 verum, which has pretty scarlet Turk's cap 

 flowers ; they flowered meagrely the first 

 summer after planting ; the next year they 

 sent up plenty of foliage but very few blooms ; 

 the year after that they seemed to be in a 

 very poor way indeed, and they never came 

 up at all on the fourth year. Now, this year, 

 there are three fine flowering spikes with 

 one or two off-sets, all very vigorous and 

 strong. A puzzling thing about these lilies is, 

 that they have not come up in the place where 

 they were originally planted ; I put them 

 in the very centre of the bed and now they 

 are some at one edge and some at another. 

 I am quite sure that the bed has not been 

 disturbed by spade, trowel, or fork, and am at 

 a loss to account for the apparent movement 

 of the bulbs. Other bulbs are in this bed 



N 2 



