48 .' NOTES ON LILIES 



them up, we found some of them had as many as twenty tiny offsets. The 

 thirty-six have given me more than 400 offsets, some the size of a cob-nut, 

 and some about half as big as a pea. Will any 'authority on Lilies kindly 

 tell me how long- such offsets take to become flowering bulbs.* I never 

 shall forget seeing, for the first time, Krameri in bloom last July, when 

 the rain was falling in torrents. Among a lot of other Lilies in the open 

 border was a bloom of Krameri, and I was ' fairly surprised by the depth 

 of colouring. The bloom was a very indifferent one, but reminded me in 

 its shape more of Longiflorum than of Auratum. I expected to find a 

 washed-out purple tinge, like that wretched fraud, the rose-coloured Lily 

 of the Valley ; but here was a veritable blush Lily, as deep, it seemed to 

 me, as the old Provence Rose. Besides the commoner kinds, I have 

 Krameri, Brownii, Eximium, Wasliingtonianum, Tigrinum, Splendens, Gigan- 

 teum, Auratum, vars. Diadem, Virgin ale, Macranthum, and Pictum, Martagon 

 Album, Dalmaticum, and the true Catesbcei, all of which I mean to use for 

 the purposes of hybridisation. 



" There are three Lilies that should be common in our borders, viz. 

 Martagon Album, Dalmaticum (Catani). and Monadelphuni." Frank Miles, 

 BingJiam, Notts, Nov., 1875, Garden, vol. 8, p. 456. 



From the same correspondent. 



" My "White Lilies (Candidum) have been good, certainly better than I 

 expected, the lime mixed with the soil in which they were planted I con- 

 sider a perfect success, but not the soot, though it did no harm. I put 

 some (Candidums) absolutely in lime, and digging them up the other day I 

 found them quite unharmed, after a year, but not many roots. However, 

 they were quite sound and plump, and I think we may consider lime quite 

 harmless, and as it kills and sickens the small slugs it must be a good thing. 



"No doubt these Lilies will be grand another year, but this terrific 

 spring was enough to choke the ardour of any gardener. When I came 

 home at the end of April I vowed I would never plant another Lily ; 

 nothing seemed moving, the soil was ice cold, and never got warm all the 

 season. Where the soil was light the Auratums did splendidly, but the 

 particular batches, with the pipe underground, are planted deep in wet 

 silt, and I don't think we can tell till another year how the thing answers, 

 my impression is that it will be a great success. I planted three clumps 

 8 inches deep, with a cubic yard of silt from a clay watershed, three Lilies 

 to each. They were planted late in April, 1876, and made fair growth 

 and a few good flowers. This year, of one clump in the least sunny 

 position there is no growth ; of another clump, only one stem, but that 

 splendid, a grand truss of flowers ; the third clump threw up four healthy- 

 stems and a few flowers. 



" I dug down to the first clump when I found it was making no show,, 

 and found the bulbs in a first-rate condition, evidently they were lying 

 dormant and fattening, and I fully expect good growth and flowers next 

 year, if they escape the villainous frosts of April and May. A great 

 number of my Lilies lay dormant this year, but I think it is better in the 

 end, arid in a measure owing to the cold soil, which never got properly 



* Under favourable circumstances two more years that is, in their third year. . 



