238 Notes and Gleanings. 



LiLiUM AURATUM. — I sliould be glad to learn the experience of contempo- 

 raries in regard to this superb lily. My own dates from the summer of 1862, 

 when I received several bulbs, which have since produced a numerous progeny. 

 Tliis lily has proved with me much less easy of management than the varieties 

 of Z. lancifoHum, with the exception, possibly, of Z. lancifolimn punctatiun. It 

 increases with the greatest ease and rapidity from scales jDlaced in sand : but 

 the young bulbs require very judicious treatment ; for, if the soil or the sand in 

 which they are is allowed to remain very damp, the roots rot away, decay soon 

 extends to the base of the bulb, and it perishes. 



With regard to the flowering-bulbs, they also require careful treatment. They 

 frequently throw up a strong flowering-stem, on which the buds form with every 

 appearance of health ; then the leaves turn black in turn from below upwards ; 

 then the stem itself blackens, and the plant perishes, with the exception, per- 

 haps, of a few bulblets. This has often occurred both in pots and in the open 

 ground ; the soil being the same in which L. lancifoliion grows luxuriantly, — that 

 is to say, a good garden loam mixed with sand, peat, leaf-mould, and old manure. 

 The experience of the Messrs. Hovey and others has corresponded with mine, 

 though in some soils and situations the lily has given no cause of complaint. 

 Nevertheless, it is very hard to discover the precise nature of its requirements. 

 An excess of moisture, before growth is in full progress and after it has ceased, 

 is certainly very injurious. Thorough drainage is, of course, indispensable. My 

 own impression is that a light sandy loam, enriched with thoroughly-rotted cow- 

 manure, will suit this lily better than the soils of which peat and leaf-mould form 

 a large part. 



"The Gardener's Chronicle " complains that L. auratum often dies after 

 blooming. It has very rarely done so with me ; but its misbehavior in 

 other respects has sometimes been vexatious. Mr. Fuller, in " The Horticultural 

 Recorder," speaks of his success with it in the soil of New Jersey. If he and 

 others will from time to time make known their observations upon it, indicating 

 the constituents and texture of the soil they use, it will help materially to solve 

 the problem of its culture. F. Parkman. 



The English Harvest. — The belief is now expressed by some commer- 

 cial writers, that the favorable accounts by cable despatches, of the English 

 wheat-harvest, were incorrect, and designed to mislead. The opinion is mainly 

 based on the fact, that there have been large orders received by cable at New 

 York for hay to be shipped to England ; the theory being, that the drought that 

 so affected the hay-crop would also injure the wheat. 



[Private letters received by us weekly from England are filled with (literally) 

 o-lowing accounts of the hot weather, drought, and losses experienced by tne 

 farmers. On one farm where seventy cows are kept, visited this summer by a 

 relative of ours, the loss by the dry weather and excessive heat is estimated at 

 j^5oo. With the exception of hay, however, the crops are reported to us as 

 fair; and fruit is good and abundant. — Ed.] 



