126 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



that need more sun than our summers usually provide. 

 There are high mountain plants that suffer from our 

 wet winters. We know what these want, even if we 

 cannot supply it. But we do not know with any 

 precision what it is that a good many lilies want, or 

 what kills them off so quickly in our climate. Many 

 experiments have been made with lilies, such as Lilium 

 Krameri, L. Washingtonianum, and L. Philadelphicum, 

 and these experiments, whether failures or successes, 

 have not led to any certainty. It is likely that most 

 of the hardy lilies which annually fail in our gardens 

 are very impatient of disturbance and never recover 

 from it when they are imported to England from dis- 

 tant countries. We have heard it said that some of 

 the North American lilies, like some of the hardy 

 Cypripediums, never flourish in captivity even in 

 gardens close to their native homes. They are not 

 likely, therefore, to recover from the shock of dis- 

 turbance when they have made a voyage across the 

 Atlantic. Sometimes, very likely, these lilies are 

 moved more carefully and at more favourable seasons 

 than at others, and this would account for occasional 

 successes. But the ordinary gardener cannot count 

 upon such precautions. He must take what bulbs 

 he can get of the rarer kinds of lilies, and he must ex- 

 pect to fail with them. The only chance of success 

 with lilies that are very impatient of removal would 

 seem to be to grow them from seed in England; and 

 this has been done in some cases with excellent re- 

 sults, though not yet, perhaps, with any of the most 



