AND THEIR CULTURE. 



103 



The bulbs vary in size from that of a Cobnut to a large Walnut ; 

 but large and small alike bore traces of the old flowering stems. 

 I found the scales thick and club-shaped, as described by Mr. 

 Baker, while the fragility to which he alludes is due to most of 

 the scales being jointed about the middle, so that the upper half 

 is apt to be snapped off if the bulbs be not carefully handled. 

 As shown in our sketch, the scales in the new-growing point of the 

 bulbs bear a few slender, flexuose leaflets, but this is not always 

 the case. The bulbs of this Lily are very much like those of the 

 Californian Fritillaria Recurva, which also has jointed or articulate 

 scales, but a much thicker root-stock or depressed stem than our 

 present plant. Some American authors have described this plant as 

 having stoloniferons or rhizomatous bulbs, but I have seen no evidence 

 of this being the case ; it is, however, a point on which we require 

 fuller evidence from those who have collected the plants in its native 

 habitats. 



L. Catesbcei "The bulb of Catesbcvi is very peculiar and un- 

 mistakable. It is figured, though not very well, in the Botanical 

 Magazine, t. 259, and may be easily recognised by its small-sized, thin, 

 pointed, white scales, some of which are in weak bulbs prolonged into 

 a narrow leaf. I believe the plant grown as Catesbcei in some nurseries 

 is the one figured in the 

 Botanical Magazine, t. 872, 

 as Pennsylvanicum^ but 

 which is really a Siberian 

 Lily, and, I think, differs 

 from the true Davuricum in 

 the form of the bulb, which 

 is very remarkable in both 

 these species" (Elwes, in 

 Garden). Mr. Baker says, 

 ' ' Bulb exactly like that of 

 PUladelplricum," but I hold 

 that fresh bulbs are very 

 distinct. I saw a small 

 parcel of thirty or forty bulbs 

 one morning, and the very 

 fact that these two species 

 were so distinct in bulb 

 structure while their above- 

 ground growth is in some 

 points very similar, led to 

 the preparation of this series 

 of sketches and notes on 



Lily bulbs Oxyvetalum is L CaM ^ gtates) from ed bulbg 



the only Lily I know which colour, white. 



