AND THEIR CULTURE. 205 



classed among- the Frilillaries, the old bulb annually dies, as I know from 

 having carefully experimented upon it. On the other hand, it has no side 

 bud at all ; but merely a central one. The leaves growing from that 

 central bud, form each a scale of the newly forming tyilb.* 



"The scales outside are of a very watery consistence, and decaying, help to 

 nourish the newly forming bulb. As to Giganteum and CordifoUum, I must 

 openly say, I have made no dissections in regard to them ; but from studying 

 these plants in the shape of hundreds of bulbs, so far as growth is visible, 

 it seems obvious to me that these species do not produce annually a new 

 bulb from a side bud, but that the old bulb is enlarged annually by the 

 scales growing larger through the growth accumulating from a central 

 bud, and that during summer, when vegetation is active,f another central 

 bud is developed to grow next year. This goes on during five or six 

 years, when the bulb arrives at mature age. It then flowers, and clearly 

 dies, the entire bulb being exhausted by the flower stem which it has 

 formed. In the meantime, the growth of the first and second year's 

 existence of the bulb has decayed, either through pressure from the 

 stronger scales of succeeding year's growth, or through general weakness. 

 The year before flowering, one or more offsets make their appearance, 

 which apparently spring from the root stool, and not from side buds in the 

 interior base of the old bulb. If Dunedin can have sent him from Cali- 

 fornia, a large bulb of Washing Ionian um, carefully taken out, he will 

 observe that his theory cannot be applied to that species, for he will find 

 inserted in one long sideward growing bulb the accumulated growth of 

 eight or ten years. As to the majority, or perhaps as to all Lilies of the 

 ' Old World,' Dunedin's theory seems to apply exactly as far as the for- 

 mation of the next year's bulbs from side-buds is concerned, but not in relation 

 to the entire decay of the old bulbs. Every year some scales decay, not those 



* Herein lies, I think, the explanation of all normal Lily scale growth, exemplified 

 most simply in a bulblet or seedling Lily, or as in a full grown Catesbcci. The base of each 

 leaf stalk is developed into a scale, and on the well doing of the leaf depends the vigour 

 and health of that scale. Extend this rule a little further, and interpose a stem between 

 the foliage and scales, and you find new scale growth developing at the base of the stem, 

 continuously with the development of foliage, and I go further, and say, that experience 

 shows me, that unless the foliage is healthy, the new growth will be scanty and stunted, 

 and this, I think, may be taken as a reply to those who advocate cutting down Lily 

 stems in full bloom, as not injurious. It is most decidedly injurious, in the way I have 

 pointed out, viz., in checking new growth unless it be done at a period when growth is 

 nearly over and unless at least two thirds of the foliage are left on the plant. 



/ say normal scale growth. / have mentioned an exception amongst the Martagon group 

 (see p. 86), but in these cases, my experience leads me to believe that nciv scale growth does 

 not appear, but only the old growth of the last season is amplified and hypertrophied ; so 

 that a larger heavier bulb is produced. I have also noticed, that in Auratum, Speciosum, 

 and other kinds, if the flowering portion of the stem be broken off while in early bud, the 

 leaves below, become much larger and broader as if to compensate for the damage done 

 above. 



f I think here, Max Leichtlin theorises erroneously : not having dissected, he docs not 

 adduce any evidence to show that during the summer another central bud is developed 

 to grow the next year. No stalk is developed in Giganteum until its time to flower is 

 come, only a tuft of leaves ; and Giganteum will go on developing its one bulb till the 

 flower stalk shoots up ; the root stock or central axis being the vital motive force in 

 development. 



