3(i MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ratum^ and from James Comley, a very fine stand of L. Canadense. 



The Committee have awarded the Prospective- Prize to Francis 

 Parkman for his Seedling Lily, to which the name of Lilium Parh- 

 manni, has been given in England. It first bloomed in 1869, and 

 has been shown nearly every year since. Last year it was exhibited 

 on the 5th of August, In England it has been pronounced the best 

 111}' ever raised. Four, if not more, engravings of it have been 

 printed, and it has excited a discussion in the journals and maga- 

 zines which still continues. No flower raised in this country has 

 ever created such a sensation abroad. We copy the following 

 account, by the originator, from the " Gardener's Chronicle :" 



"It is a hybrid between Lilium auratum, and a deep colored 

 variety of L. speciosum. The latter was the female parent. Im- 

 pregnation took place readily, and the young bulbs were planted in 

 the open ground for the first time in the spring of 1869. There 

 were about fifty of them. Several, as they grew, shoAved the pecu- 

 liar spotted stem of the male parent, but when they set fiower buds, 

 as nearly all of them did in the same season, the features of L. 

 auratum could be distinguished in only one of them. The rest, in 

 bud and flower, appeared to be merely L. speciosum, quite un- 

 affected by the pollen of the male parent. 



The one case alluded to was a remarkable exception. The flower 

 opened ten days earlier than any of the rest ; its color was a deep 

 red ; it had the fragrance of L. auratum and resembled it also in 

 form. This first flower measured nine and a half inches from tip to 

 tip of the petals. In the following year there were several flowers, 

 of which the largest measured eleven and a half inches. The bulb 

 was then in a pot ; as no special pains or skill was applied to its 

 cultivation, the flower might doubtless be grown to the diameter of 

 a foot. 



This hybrid was the result of a great number of experiments in 

 the cross fertilization of lilies." 



Messrs. Hove}' & Co. have also raised a new hybrid lily, which 

 they have oflTered for the Society's Prospective Prize. The follow- 

 ing description of it is by CM. Hovey : 



'•'•Lilium speciosum Hovey i, is a seedling from L. Melpomene^ 

 fertihzed with L. auratum. It was the first hybrid raised between 

 these two varieties, immediately after the latter was first exhil)ited. 

 It bloomed magnificently, and the plant, with twelve fully expanded 

 flowers was exhiliited before the Society in 18(;6, Init owing to an 



