AND THEIR CULTURE. 77 



even dull crimson bulbs, all yielding precisely the same coloured 

 flowers : or perchance we find that a light coloured bulb produces 

 dark rosy-crimson spotted flowers, while the white-flowered Speciosum 

 Album often has bulbs of deep purplish-crimson colour. The yel- 

 lowish-white bulbs of some of the orange Lilies, as in the forms of 

 Megans, become bright purplish-crimson if fully exposed to the sun 

 and air for a few weeks, and the same is observable in imported bulbs 

 of Wallicliianum, the bulbs of which, are yellowish-white when 

 removed from the soil. Perhaps the forms of Martagon are most 

 constant in colour, their bulbs being of a bright yellow, as are also 

 those of Albanicum, Pyrenaicum, and other European TurJcs-cap 

 Lilies. Brownii frequently has an oblate purplish bulb dotted with 

 dark markings ; some, however, are yellowish-white, and while 

 Washingtonianum and Humboldtii generally (and I have seen them in 

 heaps of several hundreds together) have pale greyish or yellowish- 

 white bulbs, Bloomerianum Ocellatum (a variety of Humboldtii) has 

 purple-dotted bulbs very similar to those of Brownii in color, and 

 dotted in the same manner. The most delicate color I have seen in 

 any Lily bulb is observable in the fresh young bulb growth of Super- 

 bum, where the white scales are suffused with soft rose colour; Cana- 

 dense and Pardalinum have yellowish scales; while Canadense Parvuni 

 has scales as white as dogs' teeth, and not unlike them in shape, only 

 much jointed. The curious and sharp-pointed scales of the bulbs of 

 Avenaceum (true), are clear yellow in colour, and being jointed in the 

 middle the jointed part is readily broken in potting or digging up 

 the roots, and then one could readily imagine that the husked fruit 

 of Avena or Oats had become mixed with the soil. The white 

 flowered Lilies of the Longifolium type, such as Neilglierrense, 

 Wallichianum, Philippinense, the European Candidum, and the 

 Japanese varieties of Longiflorum itself are somewhat alike in the 

 shape and color of their freshly dug bulbs, the form being the 

 ordinary ovoid type, with white or pale yellow scales. 



' ' As to the uses of Lily bulbs, apart from their flower-yielding pro- 

 perties, but little needs to be recorded. The bulbs of Callosum and 

 those of Tigrinnm are eaten by the Japanese, who boil, roast, and 

 preserve them in various ways. The bulbs of some of the American 

 Lilies are, or have been, also frequently eaten by the Indians. 



STRUCTURE OF LILY BULBS. 



I cannot do better than quote Mr. Baker's summary of bulb 

 structure from his " Revision of the Genera and species of Tulipae," 

 p. 219, where the main points of interest are thus set down : 



' ' Firstly, throughout the tribe of the petaloid monocotyledons, viz., 

 Liliuni, Fritillaria, Erythronium, Tulipa, Calochortus, and Lloydia, the 



