AND THEIR CULTURE. 83 



the rhizome dies in the part which does not produce rootlets, and at 

 the same time a new rhizome arises from the base of the bulb of the 

 year, to form in its turn at its extremity another bulb to yield the 

 flower-stern of the year following. There are produced, then, in 

 these Lilies a succession of subterranean bulb-bearing branches, or a 

 series of successive generations, each of which has an annual bulb for 

 its fundamental basis. 



' ( In parting finally from this squamose type of structure I wish to 

 point out that there are three different kinds of ' rhizome' in different 

 species developed in connection with it, all of which are spoken of in 

 books under the general term ' rhizome/ but which are not homolo- 

 gous, viz. : First, the produced oblique central axis of the Californian 

 Lilies ; second, the lower part of the horizontal branch originating 

 from a bud developed in the axis of a leaf-scale, which branch at its 

 extremity bears a new bulb, as in Oanadense ; third, the lowest part 

 of the flower-bearing stem above the bulb when it creeps below the 

 surface of the soil, as in Leiclitlinii"* 



One thing which has puzzled me a good deal in my studies among 

 Lily bulbs has been the not unfrequent occurrence of jointed scales. 

 HJiis is constant enough to become quite characteristic in the case of 

 Canadense, Parvum, PhiladelpMcum, Avenaceum (not Hansoni, 

 often until quite recently miscalled Avenaceum) , and one or two 

 others of the American kinds. This peculiarity is, however, not 

 solely confined to the American species, since the broad-jointed 

 scales are found in one form of the extremely puzzling Davuricum. 

 I was much perplexed after having sketched a bulb of the proliferous 

 entire-scaled form of this species in one collection (which the possessor 

 guaranteed true to name, having bloomed it), to find a totally distinct- 

 looking bulb at another collector's, with jointed scales, of the identity 

 of which its owner was equally confident. When Mr. Elwes called to 

 see my original sketches of Lily bulbs, however, he relieved nay anxiety 

 by informing me that the proliferous form has long been grown in 

 Dutch gardens for exportation to this country, and that formerly it was 

 sent here as a substitute, and under the name of Gatesbcei. The other 

 form, with jointed scales, appears to be the native condition of the 

 iplant, and blooms more freely than the proliferous form, otherwise 



* L. Wilsoni, which is generally considered a member of the Thunbergianum group, 

 has a mode of development unlike that which is met with in any other known 

 cultivated species. This plant emits from the outer scales of the matured bulbs a 

 kind of underground runner, which terminates in a flower stem ; but its chief peculiarity 

 is, that it bears at intervals of 2 or 3 inches, as it progresses, young equal-sized bulbs, 

 which afford excellent means for the rapid increase of the plant. The bulbs of the 

 original plant propagated themselves in this way, and seedlings of it which have reached 

 the flower stage, and which may consequently be safely identified, possess in a full 

 degree this remarkable habit, which, as we learn from Mr. "Wilson, is not found in 

 any other species, the horizontal portion of the flowering stem of Leichtlinii not being 

 (at least normally) bulbiferous, and, moreover, proceeding from the crown of the mature 

 bulb. Florist and Pomologist, Dec. 1874, p. 269. 



