OCTOBER. 475 



ningham, nurserymen, Comely Bank, near Edinburgh, from which a drawing 

 was made in July, 1852, and subsequently published in the Botanical Mag- 

 azine, fol. 4673. We are there informed on the authority of Colonel Mad- 

 den, that " the plant is common in the damp thick forests of the Himalaya, 

 the provinces of Kumaon, Gurwhal, and Bushur. It grows in rich black 

 mould, the bulb close to the surface, at from 7500 to 9000 feet above the 

 level of the sea, where it is covered with snow from November to April. 

 The hollow stems are commonly from six to nine feet high, and are used for 

 musical instruments." 



The Lamorran plant, we learn from Mrs. Boscawen, was one of four which 

 were offsets taken in November, 1854, from a plant that flowered out of 

 doors in July of the same year. The bulb was unprotected through the 

 severe winter of 1854-5, when the thermometer was down as low as 10° 

 (Fahrenheit) at Truro; and it has also borne the two last trying springs of 

 1855 and 1856 without protection. With these facts before us there cannot 

 now be any doubt about the hardiness of this noble lily, and of its being 

 able to endure without injury the usual severity of an English winter, even 

 in places which have not the advantage of possessing the soft and balmy 

 air of a Cornish climate. The height which the flower stem attains in the 

 course of a season is most unusual for any of the lily tribe. Dr. Wallich's 

 specimen is stated to have been 10 feet high, which was also the height of 

 that of Messrs. Cunningham, the flowering portion at the top measuring 20 

 inches and bearing 12 flowers. The Lamorran lily, however, considerably 

 exceeded these, and must have been a very striking object, being no less 

 than 12 feet high, with a raceme of 18 large white drooping flowers, some- 

 what resembling those of the common white lily, excepting that they had a 

 deep purplish tinge along the inner edge of each division of the perianth. 

 When in perfection they measured five and a half inches across the mouth 

 of the tube, and were no doubt similar to those described by Dr. Wallich 

 " delightfully fragrant." 



We congratulate Mr. Boscawen on the success which has attended his 

 experiment of cultivating this fine plant in the open air, and trust it may be 

 the means of inducing him to continue the interesting inquiry on which he 

 has entered. No situation in Cornwall is better adapted for experiments in 

 this way than Lamorran, nor could a more beautiful family of plants have 

 been named for such a purpose than the one Mr. Boscawen has selected. 

 Let us hope that it will not be long before we are made acquainted with 

 the comparative hardiness of other East India lilies, as well as of those 

 lovely kinds from China and Japan with which our gardens were enriched 

 some years ago, and which now form the most attractive ornaments of our 

 conservatories during tlae latter part of summer and autumn. — ( Gard. Chron. 

 1856, p. 596.) 



Destruction of Ants by Guano. — A curious discovery is said to 

 have been made by a French gentleman whose garden was most inconveni- 

 ently invaded by ants. They swarmed at Rambouillet in his flower bas- 

 kets and among his flower beds to such a degree that it was impossible to 



