270 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



back of this bed will give solidity and the sturdy foliage 

 make an excellent windbreak in the blooming season. 

 If your friendly woman in the back country will give 

 you two dozen of the Madonna lily bulbs, group them 

 in fours, leaving a short stake in the middle of each 

 group that you may know its exact location, for the 

 other lilies you cannot obtain before October, unless 

 you chance to find them in the garden of some near-by 

 florist or friend. These are 



Lilium speciosum album white recurved. 



Lilium speciosum rubrum spotted with ruby- red. 



Lilium speciosum roseum spotted with rose-pink. 

 All three flower in August and September, rubrum 

 being the latest, and barring accidents increase in size 

 and beauty with each year. 



In spite of the fact of their fickleness, I would buy 

 a dozen or two of the auratum lilies, for even if they 

 last but for a single year, they are so splendid that we 

 can almost afford to treat them as a fleeting spectacle. 

 As the speciosum lilies (I wish some one would give 

 them a more gracious name we call them curved- 

 shell lilies here among ourselves) do not finish flower- 

 ing sometimes until late in September, the bulbs are 

 not ripe in time to be sold through the stores, until 

 there is danger of the ground being frozen at night. 



