44 KOTES ON LILIES 



period, when it was taken to a cool conservatory : the plant threw up 

 thirty-nine flowering stems, ranging- from 2 to 9 feet in height, from the 

 top of the pot, and producing altogether 193 flowers, many of which 

 measured from 11 to 12 inches in diameter. In 1870 the bulbs were left 

 in the same pot undisturbed : they threw up forty-three stems, producing 

 altogether 208 flowers. In the autumn of 1870 I carefully separated 

 the bulbs, about seventy in number, not breaking a root more than I 

 could possibly avoid. Having ready a pot 24 inches in diameter, I com- 

 menced with the largest bulb, which measured 7 inches in circumference, 

 placing it in the centre of the pot, and seven other bulbs each about 6 

 inches in circumference, around it, twenty others, averaging from 4 to 5 

 inches, around these, and outside seventeen more, gradually diminishing 

 in size to 1 inch in circumference, filling up with soil at the same time ; 

 twenty-five other bulbs (making in all seventy bulbs, the produce of one 

 original bulb in five years), were scarcely formed, and were put elsewhere. 

 The bulbs were on the whole more solid and compact than I have usually 

 seen. This done, the pot was placed in a cold pit, protected from frost, 

 until the month of March. It was then taken to a cool greenhouse, where 

 it remained until it flowered. The plant threw up about seventy stems, 

 measuring from 18 inches to 9 feet 6 inches from the top of the pot, 

 producing on the whole 225 flowers, averaging 10 inches in diameter, and 

 was photographed on the 16th August, 1871, a copy of which was pre- 

 sented to the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington. In 1872 

 <the plant was left undisturbed and wintered in a cold pit as before, where 

 it remained until the stems were about 18 inches in length, but as it got 

 too large for the place, and as I had no accommodation for it under glass at 

 the time, I was compelled to leave it out under the shelter of a south wall 

 during May and June ; the weather being very wet and cold, the plant 

 suffered very much ; the foliage was much smaller, also the stems, and 

 many of the flowers. There were about eighty stems on the plant, 

 producing altogether 240 flowers, a few of which did not properly expand, 

 which I attribute to the fact of the plant having had a severe check in the 

 months of May and June. 



" The plant still remains in the same pot, and has been kept in a cool 

 house during the past winter. It has lately had a surfacing of about an 

 inch of the same material that I use for potting, viz., good turfy loam, two 

 parts ; peat, one ditto ; cow manure, one ditto ; with a little coarse leaf 

 mould and silver sand well incorporated. 



"At the present time there are seventy stems showing, about the half 

 of which seem strong enough to bear flowers. 



" I do not find any advantage in using liquid manure of any kind until 

 roots are emitted from the base of the stems, which generally takes place 

 in a healthy plant when the stems are from 6 to 18 inches in length. At 

 that period I invariably add about an inch of the above-named compost, to 

 encourage and strengthen the flowering stems and flowers. After the 

 stem roots are fairly established in the soil, I apply liquid manure once or 

 twice a week up to the time the blooms expand, and I invariably find the 

 blooms to expand during the night, and their average duration to be about 

 nine days. 



