116 NOTES ON LILIES 



My sketch of the singular narrow seedling bulbs was made in 

 January, 1877. I sent a copy of it to Mr. M'Nab, who suc- 

 ceeded so well in the open-air culture and seed propagation of 

 this plant; he in reply remarked, "The bulbs are certainly very 

 distinct, quite of the shape you figure, but somewhat larger." 

 Another gentleman writes, "It is one of the most unmistakeable 

 bulbs I know, except, perhaps, that of Oxypetalon. The bulb of 

 Polyphyllum attains 3 or 4 inches in length, when fully grown, 

 and it may be distinguished at the age of one year from seed with cer- 

 tainty." Polyphyllum is said by a correspondent to belong to the Turk's- 

 cap* group ; grows in good, tolerably moist vegetable mould on a slope in 

 a thick shrubbery, and flowers there in June at an elevation of 6500 feet 

 Quite recently bulbs of this species have been imported by the Col- 

 chester New Plant and Bulb Company, so that it will doubtless soon 

 become better known in our gardens if not coddled to death, as happens, 

 to so many plants and bulbs from elevated and consequently compara- 

 tively cool habitats within the tropics. Mr. Horsman tells me that 

 the imported bulbs of this plant acquire a large size in the open air 

 at Colchester. Our illustrations represent seedling bulbs of this- 

 plant when about four years old, a well developed flowering bulb a& 

 grown at Edinburgh, and also another grown at Colchester. 



L. Chahedonicum. -A well-known and beautiful plant, the most 

 vivid in its scarlet colour of all the Lilies. There are now several 

 varieties, the plant having been grown from seeds by some of the 

 Dutch bulb-growers. Considering the size of the plant and com- 

 paratively small area of leafage, the bulb is enormous, being as large- 

 or larger than a duck's egg, ovoid in form and pointed, the scales 

 lance-shaped and closely imbricated, some of the outer ones being- 

 slightly constricted about the centre. Many of the bulbs are 3 to 4 

 inches in length, and fully 3 inches in diameter, the colour of the- 

 inner scales being whitish, and the outer ones yellow, some are 

 suffused also with purplish-pink or orange. 



L. Pyrenaicum. This is sometimes considered as being only a 

 robust, broad-leaved, large-flowered form of Pomponium, with which 

 plant it agrees very closely in bulb structure, the bulbs being 2 or 3 

 inches in diameter, ovoid, formed of numerous yellow or brown- 

 stained scales. 



L. Pomponium. A pretty yellow, orange, or red-flowered Lily,, 

 similar in habit to Ohaleedonicum, but with narrower leaves. The 

 bulbs are ovoid, formed of closely-imbricated, yellow scales, which 

 vary from 2 to 3 inches in length, the whole bulb being 2 to 3 inches 

 in diameter. 



L. Testaceum. This distinct plant has a globose bulb, when fully 

 grown, the size of a large Orange (much like the figure, page 104, 



* The petals are reflexed, like those of Ssovitsianum, but the perianth is more tubular 

 than any other in this group, approaching more closely in that respect to Longiflorum. 



