General Notices. 551 



delicate pencilling of the kalmia, or the modest-looking andromeda ; and 

 where shall we find a compeer for those universal favorites, hardy heaths? 

 Such is the extensive stock of raw material the man of taste has to work 

 with ; most of them growing in any description of soil, excepting, perhaps, 

 a i-etentive clay, and on many of the poor, sandy soils where deciduous trees 

 would barely live, would thrive well ; and even on the most unfavorable 

 sites, the addition of a little sand and peat-soil, would do wonders in assist- 

 ing them to grow. I will resume the description of the more ornamental 

 kinds, in succeeding numbers. — {Gard. and Far. Jour., 1849, p. 709.) 



On the Cultivation of Hardy Bulbs. — Liliums : The hardy kinds of this 

 tribe deserve the particular attention of every flower-gardener. The beauty 

 of their flowers and elegance of their forms, have always been admired, in 

 ancient as well as modern horticulture. They are invariably handsome in 

 their several stages ; but it is when their chaste and gorgeous flowers are 

 expanded, that they present their highest attractions : there is a fulness 

 and completeness in their structure, a brilliancy and softness in their colors, 

 which render them more effective as objects of beauty in a flower garden, 

 than any other plants. Of the hardy kinds there may be about fifty species 

 and varieties, all more or less worthy of cultivation ; but in England we 

 seldom see many more than a dozen grown in gardens. On the continent, 

 however, they are much more numerous ; and in some places treated with 

 the greatest success. Few plants can have a better effect, when well- 

 grown on a large rockwork, than the four species called L. testaceum, py- 

 renaicum, martagon, and superbum ; they are quite hardy, with the excep- 

 tion of L. testaceum, which requires a little shelter in winter. Near the 

 water, or in a flower-garden, or in front of a house, a bed of L. longiflorum, 

 mixed with L. tigrinum, at about two feet from each other, is most splen- 

 did ; the pure white color and comparatively dwarf habit of L. longiflorum, 

 have a peculiarly striking effect in being intermixed with L. tigrinum, the 

 flowers of which are of a deep orange-color, and spotted with dark purple. 

 It grows from two to three feet high, and, therefore, in a mixed bed, stands 

 considerably above the others. L. eximium, and L. Browni, also white 

 flowering sorts, are not quite hardy, but the flowers are far more handsome 

 than L. longiflorum ; the former is of pendant habit, and the petals lanceo- 

 late and reflexed : it is a fine, bold variety, of a delicate white. L. Browni 

 has a very fine brown shading on the back of its petals, and may be men- 

 tioned here. The L. lancifolium rubrum, or Speciosum rubrum, (as it is 

 called by Thunberg,) is considered as the original species, of which the 

 others are more or less varieties or hybrids. The following are the names 

 of these varieties : — L. lancifolium punctatum, L. lancifolium album. The 

 following are sub-varieties of these : — L. speciosum roseum marmoratum, 

 L. sp. rubrum marmoratum, and L. sp. a]b\im bruneo-maculatum. These, 

 as well as the different sub-varieties of L. lancifolium, may be grown in 

 pots ; the bulbs generally begin their growth in February, when they must 

 be taken out of the old soil, and potted afresh in the following mixture, of 

 equal parts, of sandy peat, rich loam, leaf mould, and well-decayed cow or 

 horsedung. The pots should not be too broad on the top. Drain them 



