52 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS 



The plants do not escape enemies, and the fungoid disease 

 which attacks candidum is only too well known. Change of 

 ground, avoidance of richly manured soil, and the shaking up of 

 the bulbs in a bag of dry flowers of sulphur, may all be tried as 

 remedies. 



The Lily of the Valley is not a Li Hum, but a Convallaria, 

 specific name, majalis. It is a modest little flower for so long a 

 botanical name. We love the Lily of the Valley, firstly, because 

 it is very pretty ; secondly, because it is very sweet ; and thirdly, 

 because we can get flowers of it in the winter, and practically all 

 the rest of the year as well. Science has come to the aid of the 

 grower with this charming denizen of British woodlands. The 

 lower part of the plant consists of a thickened stem, called a 

 " crown," which contains the flowers and leaves, like the bulb of a 

 Hyacinth. The large market grower takes a number of these 

 crowns while they are dormant, and puts them in a store, which 

 is kept at a low temperature. The cold is not extreme enough to 

 injure the crowns, but is sufficient to keep them at rest, and they 

 remain quiescent until they are put in a warmer place. 



The home grower will not possess a cold store, and therefore 

 cannot have Lilies of the Valley in flower for the greater part of 

 the year, but he can buy crowns in autumn or early winter, and 

 get flowers from them in about twenty days if he subject them to 

 strong, moist heat. Unless very early flowers are wanted for a 

 particular purpose a handful of the crowns may be put together 

 loosely in a five- or six-inch pot, in soil similar to that advised 

 for Hyacinths, and plunged in fibre for a few weeks, as recom- 

 mended for those popular flowers. This treatment insures leaves 

 and flowers coming together, whereas under hard forcing the 

 flowers may come in advance of the foliage. One has to be 

 careful in buying these crowns. Bundles of them must not be 

 picked up at auctions merely because they are cheap, as they may 

 be thin and pointed, in which case they do not contain flowers. 



