AND THE1E CULTURE. 211 



fungus germs, can live or be propagated in these antiseptic solutions. 

 Hence it is evident that if the Japanese would, just before packing, 

 steep the bulbs in a bowl of water containing one part of carbolic 

 acid to forty of water, the germs then attached to the bruised Lily 

 scales would be either destroyed or rendered innocuous, and the 

 bulbs would arrive safe. Similar treatment should be adopted on 

 arrival. It is clear that the exclusion of air on the voyage by means 

 of the mud coating is of material benefit in keeping the bulbs 

 cool, and preventing fungoid growth during that period, but that it 

 is not in itself all-sufficient, is evident from the fact that bulbs do 

 decay on the voyage, and that rot, the result of fungus, probably 

 contracted in the Japanese packing sheds, spreads from bulb to bulb 

 and from case to case.* Even after arrival we have found the benefit 

 of these mud envelopes, for whereas bulbs once turned out will not 

 keep more than a very few weeks, even if covered with dry soil, kept 

 unbroken in their mud balls we have found them perfectly sound 

 two months after arrival. To carry this point further still, we recom- 

 mend all buyers of imported bulbs to purchase only those which are 

 still in their mud coats, or only just turned out, and to plant them at 

 once, covered with several inches of the best antiseptic of all mother 

 earth. No fungus germs will then attack them ; if left uncovered, 

 they will rapidly deteriorate. 



" I have dissected many imported bulbs, and have found colonies of 

 little voracious thread-like worms, about 1 inch in length, feeding- on the 

 base of the young steins, so that subject to such attacks it would be 

 impossible that these tender stems could live and thrive. I have put 

 small fresh pieces of the stems into wine glasses, with seven or eight of 

 these worms into each glass, and have found that they each consumed 

 more in a day than was equal to the bulk of their own bodies. There 

 cannot be a doubt that the parent insects (worms ? ) must have laid these 

 eggs (?) on the bulbs during the ten to fifteen days they were exposed to 

 the atmosphere before packing for exportation. I have also seen in many 

 cases that these worms had consumed the young seed-buds ; nothing- else 

 in my opinion can account for the wholesale destruction of bulbs, which 

 is a common complaint, in consequence of the non-appearance of imported 

 Lilies during the second season." Dunedin^ in Garden, vol. 15, p. 83. 



The above remarks of " Dunedin " we are unable to corroborate, 

 never having met with any worms in our Auratum bulbs. If, how- 

 ever, he refers to the thread-like worms (Gordius) found in this 

 country in diseased potatoes and other decaying vegetable material, 

 we can only remark that these worms do not attack healthy bulbs, 

 but are found only in unhealthy and decaying roots and bulbs of all 

 kinds, and are the " post hoc " not the ' * propter hoc." 



* It is somewhat confirmatory of the correctness of these ideas, that we have as yet 

 found in no other bulbs, except in those coming from Japan, evidence of this long silky 

 fungoid growth, so destructive to bulb life. 



