18 NOTES ON LILIES 



L. WalUcJiianum. " In saying that these beautiful plants are found in 

 deep dells, I find it is necessary to define what I mean by the word ; for 

 all is here on so vast and majestic a scale, that what you tarry-at-home 

 travellers with your mole-hills would call a dell, we should regard as a 

 mere nut-shell. 



" Our Himalayan dells are, in truth, wide open valleys of considerable 

 depth ; and I have stood in younger days at the edge of a granite rock 

 looking down into a valley where the river Sutledge ran like a silver 

 thread at a perpendicular depth below me of 4,000 feet ; yet this I call a 

 deep glen. In some parts of these valleys the slopes are thickly studded 

 with goodly forest trees, with an undergrowth of shrubs and various 

 plants ; in other parts they are only clothed with tall rank grass higher 

 than the tallest man ; while again, the sides of the valley are generally 

 ribbed, as it were, with narrow sharp-backed ridges, running down from 

 summit to base, and widening as they descend ; these are pent-shaped, 

 and usually covered with short grasses ; these ridges are unwooded, and 

 lie open to the sun from its rise to its setting. 



" It is on the sloping sides of these edges that L. Wallicliianum 

 is generally found in the full blaze of the sun, with a temperature 

 exceeding 120 Fahr. ; I found one bed of these Lilies by scanning the 

 slopes on the opposite side of the valley, at least half a mile wide, 

 through a telescope, the white flowers being distinctly visible. 



" In this spot we found nearly two hundred Lilies of various sizes a 

 fact which refutes the statement of one of your correspondents, that they 

 are scarce in their natural habitats. The elevation at which we find them 

 in this neighbourhood is usually about 5,500 feet, on a southern slope ; 

 and they are never found in a rich soil, but in a coarse stony soil, often 

 passing at a little depth into limestone gravel. Indeed, I have always 

 found that when grown in their natural soil they always grow stronger 

 and flower better than when reared in a rich soil. The latter always 

 forces them to a considerable extent, and exhausts the bulb, which is 

 expended in throwing up a long thin flower-stalk without any flowers. 



" Last year (1872) I had fifty of these Lilies in full flower, some with 

 one, others with two, and even four flowers ; the stalks were thick and 

 healthy, and stood fully 4 feet high. This year (1873) I was induced to 

 try a light rich soil, and the result is thin sickly flower-stalks of half their 

 usual height, and not the merest shadow of a bud. A few that are 

 growing in their natural coarse soil are 4 feet high, healthy, and with 

 flower buds. 



" In future I shall follow nature in preference to all other guides. 



" This Lily is decidedly a hardy species, enduring not only a temperature 

 of 120 or more, but likewise the long continued heavy monsoon, and the 

 frosts and snows of winter. From too much moisture they are protected 

 in their natural localities by the sloping and stony nature of their soil, for 

 they are never found in flat or level places, and the bulbs lie at a depth of 

 from 6 to 8 inches. They certainly ought not to be dug up every year, if 

 they flourish in the soil in which planted ; for if left alone they are in root 

 all the winter through, and prepared to shoot upwards as soon as the 

 summer warmth and showers set in. With us they usually spring in 

 June, and flower towards the end of August. 



