96 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



care for them is how to possess their beauty with the least amount of 

 care and disappointment ; and, happily, the question has been solved 

 for many handsome kinds by planting them in the peat beds that 

 were made at first wholly in the interest of the American shrubs. 

 Some of the finest Lilies thrive admirably in these, and by adding 

 here and there deep leaf-mould, rotten cow manure, and the like, 

 other kinds may be grown, for some Lilies thrive best in such soil. Nor 

 need we neglect the mixed borders because we have new ways for our 

 Lilies, as several of the European Lilies thrive perfectly in ordinary 

 borders. They may be naturalised too, or some of them, in deep 

 moist peat bottoms ; for example, the American swamp Lily (L. 

 superbum). The mania for draining everything might even lead to 

 evil in the case of some Lilies which inhabit the cold northern woods, 

 and which do with a very different degree of moisture from that 

 required by the Lilies of California, where the soil in summer is 

 as road dust on a dry hill. Lilies are so varied in their nature 

 and stature that they may adorn almost any aspect in sun or 

 shade. The new and rare among them will have special beds or 

 borders, and we have Lily men and even Lily maniacs who will have 

 Lily gardens. And as these lovely flowers tumble into our lap, as 

 it were, from the woods and hills of Western China, Japan, and 

 California, untouched by man until he found them made to his hand 

 a few years ago, it is reasonable to suppose that some of them would 

 take care of themselves, if trusted in likely spots, with us. I put 

 some of the Panther Lily deep in a leafy hollow in a Sussex wood, 

 just to see if it would survive in such conditions. Whether owing to 

 a series of cold wet seasons and the want of the glorious sun of the 

 hills in Nevada County, California, where I found it, we know not, 

 but after the first season it did not come up. I thought no more of 

 it, but a friend going into the same wood some years afterwards found 

 a colony of it in bloom. So that we must not always cry out if 

 Lilies do not come up, as they have a way of resting for a year now 

 and then. 



NARCISSUS. Next to the Lily in value as an outdoor flower is the 

 Narcissus, though when we know the Iris better it may find a high 

 place. But the wondrous development of the garden forms of Nar- 

 cissus during recent years, and their fitness for our climate, give it 

 great value. Mountain plants in origin, for the most part they are 

 as hardy as riverside rushes, and those few southern forms that will 

 only live in dry banks and at the foot of warm walls need not concern 

 us who look for pictures of Narcissi in the open air. We have 

 not to ask where the Narcissi will grow, as there are few places they 

 will not grow in with the usual garden culture, and in some cool, 

 loamy soils they take to the turf as ducks to water. Hence it is easy 



