46 NOTES ON LILIES 



they retained from the tubbing. I took up some of the last row the other 

 day, and found my friends, the slugs, calmly browsing on the newly- 

 formed roots, as calmly as if soot was not an infallible preventive (?) against 

 their ravages. On lifting those dressed with lime, I found the bulbs firm, 

 and growing fast with long fleshy roots. It is certainly marvellous how 

 quickly these Lilies reproduce themselves ; each scale which has been 

 injured in separating the bulbs has now at its base a small offset the size 

 of a cob-nut. Some bulbs of L. Chalcerfoiricum that were left in the 

 potting shed have produced from twenty to thirty offsets wherever they 

 were bruised. I think that there can be no doubt that the time to trans- 

 plant all Lilies is directly the stems begin to wither, before a single new 

 root has formed. People make a great mistake in repotting their Lilies 

 in spring, when the soil is full of new roots, instead of in the autumn, 

 when there is nothing but old roots in the pot. I have over 500 bulbs of 

 Candidum, and the effect of 500 flower-spikes in a long row is something 

 splendid ; my long border last summer seemed like a white stream of 

 foam flowing down the garden. Mr. Ruskin is coming to Bingham next 

 spring, and I shall get him to time his visit for the flowering of these 

 white Lilies. I fancy the transplanting will make them at least a week 

 later ; and this is just what is wanted in order to escape the early frosts, 

 when the flower-stem is only a few inches high. 



"Of the rarer kinds, I have perhaps done best with the White Martagon, 

 which is quite a Lily for the open border. Two years ago I purchased a 

 small bulb of this, about as big as a small walnut. It forgot to flower last 

 year, but did so twice this year, producing two good spikes. The flowers 

 are creamy-white, and more fleshy than the common Purple Mariagon. 

 I am going to grow all border Lilies, such as Tigrinum, Martagon, 

 Clialcedomcum, Monadelphum, and others, in soil from earth-closets, which 

 is, I think, the very thing for such as can stand a strong soil. Mine is a 

 very strong loam. In wet weather it is little better than clay, and in dry 

 weather it is worse than baked brick. So I have to make an artificial 

 soil for all my rarer herbaceous plants in the open border. I have done 

 well with Speciosum out of doors, but I prefer a sandier soil. For the 

 varieties of Speciosum 1 have hitherto used soil from the interior of willow 

 trees, which is an excellent substitute for peat. I never saw the varieties 

 of Speciosum so grand as at Chester, the soil there appeared extremely 

 light, almost too sandy for Auratum, but Excdsum was fully 7 feet high, 

 and the bulbs enormous. This Lily, otherwise called Testaceum, or 

 fsabellinnm, ought to be more commonly grown, for, in shape and 

 colour, it is exquisite. After carefully looking at it, no one can doubt its 

 being a hybrid between Ckalcedonicum or Pyrenaicutn, and Candidum. It 

 has the same shaped buds as Candidum, but hanging down like Chalce- 

 donicum. The flowers are in form like the latter, but have the mid-rib of 

 the former. The colour is something between the t\vo cream, flushed 

 with red, and slightly marked with the marks of CJuilcedonicum. Can 

 any one tell us whether this Lily is now grown in China or Japan ? 

 Tradition says it was imported from Japan,* but how can it be a hybrid 



* Amongst the numerous paintings which we have received from time to time from 

 Japan, were a series executed by one of the best artists in Yeddo (Tokio), representing all 



