294 Notes and Gleanmgs. 



LiLiUM AURATUM. — A correspondent of " The Gardener's Chronicle " writes 

 of a grand specimen o{ Lilium auratuni as follows : — 



" A few days back, I saw in the collection of Mr. Archibald Turner, Bowbridge, 

 Leicester, a specimen of Liliutn atiratum, which surpasses all preconceived no- 

 tions of its beauty. This plant was some seven feet in height, and vigorous in pro- 

 portion ; so strong, that the main stem had assumed what botanists call the fasci- 

 ated form : that is, the flower-stem had spread out flat some two inches wide ; and 

 upon this were, at the least, forty flowers. If the plant, which is in fine health, but 

 rather drawn, has sufficient strength to perfect the whole of the buds that have 

 shown, some fifty or sixty will be brought to maturity." 



Another correspondent, speaking of another in flower, says, — 



" I saw this extremely beautiful lily the other day, and may state that there 

 are six stems from one root, the highest upwards of eight feet. The stems bear 

 nineteen, eighteen, sixteen, eight, nine, and four flowers respectively, making in 

 all seventy-four. The flowers are fully expanded, and some of them measure 

 ten inches across." 



Gentians. — I have been planting gentians, not without a half-guilty feeling, 

 as if, in so doing, I had robbed them of a part of their beauty ; and yet, in remov- 

 ing them to this little city-lot, I have so respected the individuality of each, and 

 preserved their native associations, that I am sure the next autumn will bring 

 me a full pardon. 



In the lowest part of the grounds I have scooped out a circular bed, which I 

 have lined with half-decayed sods from the marshes, upon which I have planted 

 a dozen strong roots of the fringed gentian {Gentiana crinita). These I cut in 

 the sods from the wet places where they grow; and, as the season is an unusually 

 dry one, they are not likely to discover that they are being civilized. I have 

 surrounded them with the closed gentian {G. Andreivsii), a very interesting spe- 

 cies, which is in flower a long time, and has pure white stripes upon its close-shut 

 petals ; next a few plants of ths soapwort gentian {G. saponaria), a plant of 

 most dignified habit, and a free bloomer withal ; and for the rim of this earthen 

 saucer I have a close-set row of gentiana pubenila^ my favorite among them 

 all. This is the "prairie gentian," the graceful wand with which summer waves 

 to us her last farewell. The pretty clusters of open intense blue flowers (like 

 some eyes, so blue that they are almost black) are shaded at their base into the 

 russet-purple calyx-leaves, and these, again, into the golden brown of the stem- 

 leaves: you shall find a hundred of them among the withered stems of the earlier 

 plants, and each will be a surprise. The i'ringed gentian is a blue-eyed country 

 girl, innocent and fresh ; but her garments are ill-fitting and coarse. In this 

 species, the genus of gentians culminates in harmony throughout, and with all its 

 surroundings. It is now in perfection here (Oct. 21), while C. dctonsa with us 

 rarely outlives September.* 



G. puberula can be easily propagated from seed, and would be a treasure in 

 any park or pleasure-ground. The lawn of Belle Colline, near this city (which 



♦ Mr. Burgess Truesdell speaks of this {G. detonsa) as ihe latest species of gentian in the latitude ol 

 Elgin, 111. 



