LILIUM AURATUM. 59 



Mr. Rand remarked on the improvement in the means of com- 

 munication as shown by a sale which he had witnessed this morn- 

 ing of 8,000 bulbs of Lilium auratmn for nineteen cents each. 

 Only a few years ago he paid twenty dollars for a single bulb. 



Mr. Hovey said the wonder to him is where all these lilies come 

 from. Our native lilies could not be found in such quantities. 

 He thought nineteen cents a high price, considering the bad oi'der 

 the}'^ frequently come in. He imported three bulbs from Messrs. 

 Veitch, soon after its introduction, and they gradually grew smaller, 

 until he had not one left. Mr. Wilder also had a plant with ten or 

 twelve flowers one year, and the next year not any. It seems to 

 be very fastidious about its soil. On Long Island it succeeds and 

 is grown extensivel}^ It should be planted in light soil. He 

 thought that the beautiful varieties of L. sjjeciomim has been too 

 much neglected for L. anratum. 



Mr. Rand, who has been very successful in cultivating L. 

 auratnm, said that he merely covered his bed with pine needles — 

 not enough to keep out the frost, — and they grew stronger year 

 after year. His soil is light and sandy. 



Francis Putnam being inquired of as to his success in growing 

 L. miratum, answered that he had lost a good many ; he had one 

 with nineteen buds on it, which died away in two days, and on 

 digging it up found the bulb rotten. His soil is of medium 

 character, neither very light nor very heavy. He had some in 

 soil where the water stood, which survived. L. Japonicum had 

 succeeded within ten feet of where L. auratum had totally failed. 



Mr. Hovey planted eight or ten bulbs of L. auratum to fill up 

 the gaps in a row of L. Japonicum^ and they came up and grew 

 rapidly for a short time, and then turned yellow. The soil in 

 which the imported bulbs are packed is very sandy and yellow. 



James O'Brien bought bulbs of L. auratum three years ago, 

 started them in pots, and planted out a dozen in a heavy, mucky 

 soil. They flowered very finely, the individual flowers being very 

 large and fine. 



Mr. Hovey said he had no doubt there is an inherent tendency 

 to rot in the imported bulbs, when planted here. He had a bulb 

 of L. speciosum which had twenty -four flowers on it, and for which 

 he^paid five guineas ; after producing seed the bulb dwindled for 

 five years, decaying and the scales breaking off, until it finally 



