2 THE BOOK OF THE LILY 



nor can it be reasonably expected. How is it possible 

 for the wildlings from the Californian forests and moun- 

 tains, from the plains of Europe, from the far-off regions 

 of the mighty Himalayas and the wooded valleys of 

 Japan, to find in the small area of a British garden all the 

 subtle conditions of natural environment that for count- 

 less ages they have enjoyed ? 



Such is the fact, but true though it be, let it not 

 discourage the would-be Lily grower. On the contrary, 

 it should encourage and stimulate him in his attempt to 

 overcome the difficulties that beset Lily culture, and 

 attain results which all of us who have experience among 

 Lilies know will repay any amount of patient care. 



The author of this modest treatise on the Lily ap- 

 proaches his subject with the feeling that he has no right 

 in assuming to dictate to others in a matter upon which 

 he himself feels that he is still only a student under 

 probation. But having been intimately associated with 

 Lilies for thirty years, grown them in his own garden 

 for many years, seen them growing under various con- 

 ditions in gardens in all parts of these islands, and enjoyed 

 the rare privilege of studying them growing in a wild 

 state in Europe, California, and Japan, he offers the 

 results of his experience in the hope that they may be 

 helpful to others, and especially to that ever-increasing 

 class of garden lovers who yearn after the delights of 

 Lily culture, but hesitate to embark upon the culti- 

 vation of plants that by repute, which has wellnigh 

 ripened into tradition, are a family, in the culture of 

 which the disappointments far outweigh the successes. 

 So the Lilies as a class have been maligned, and, there- 

 fore, it is the aim of the writer to state facts in regard 

 to them as plainly as he can, withholding nothing that 

 he knows, but conscious that he himself has yet much 

 to learn of their vagaries and caprices when under 

 cultivation in these islands. 



