280 JANUARY 



relative failures ; La Reine, however, is never a 

 failure, and it is very fine this winter. There are 

 other minor bulbs, all of which are pretty and some 

 well worth growing, while others take up more room 

 than one is justified in giving them. Of these last 

 are the small hoop-petticoat narcissi, various snow- 

 flakes and varieties of squills. But everyone should 

 grow the white dog's-tooth violet erythronium 

 citrinum is its catalogued name. The leaves are hand- 



o 



some, faintly spotted with brown, and they stand 

 up boldly round the flower stem, which bears two 

 or more blossoms, creamy in colour with a yellow- 

 stained centre. Several bulbs in a five-inch pot 

 make a good show, and few things are prettier than 

 their graceful flowers, in shape and size somewhat 

 resembling those of the clematis montana. 



Lilies of the valley are so often a failure that a 

 few words must be said about their culture. I have 

 tried more than one way of forcing them, but in 

 none have I been successful except in that which 

 provides a great heat for them. Lilies come from 

 the salesmen early in November. If the weather 

 at the time is frosty, the crowns may be laid in an 

 exposed position on the grass for a night or two, as 

 a few degrees of cold helps them to blossom. As 

 soon as they have had their baptism of frost, they 

 may be potted up loosely in five-inch pots, as many 

 crowns being put in as the pots will hold without 

 squeezing. The tips of the crowns should stand up 

 above the surface of the soil, and should be covered 

 over with a good handful of moss or cocoa fibre, 

 and an inverted pot placed over each pot of bulbs. 

 They should then be plunged in a bottom tempera- 



