378 GARDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



same condition, never making any growth whatever, and in 

 course of time perished. 



Lilium. 



Both when at Ferozepore and at How rah I made attempts to 

 introduce several kinds of Lily commonly cultivated in England 

 at that time, but on each occasion with most unsatisfactory 

 results. The bulbs do not bear being kept long out of the 

 ground, and are sure to arrive here in a more or less damaged 

 condition. Some were entirely decayed on reaching me; others 

 in a tolerably sound condition never started, and some one or 

 two only did so to die off speedily on the approach of the Hot 

 season. Many new species from Japan have, however, appeared 

 since then, the introduction of which might perhaps prove more 

 satisfactory. I think it likely, indeed, that the want of success 

 hitherto may be owing to the exhausted condition of the bulbs, 

 from which they never recover, rather than from any unfitness 

 of the climate. For it is stated that at the Calcutta flower- 

 show of March 1868, Mr. G. Livesay exhibited two new kinds 

 of Lilies, unnamed, flowering then for the first time, from bulbs 

 received from the Mauritius three years previously. This is 

 just what happens with the L. auratum brought now to 

 England in such quantities from Japan : many never recover 

 from the effects of the journey, and those that do take two or 

 three years before they flower. This magnificent species, too, 

 has flowered in Calcutta, but not, as I learn, very satisfactorily. 

 The only kinds that I know of which thrive in this country are 

 the following : 



1. L. longifolium. A common plant in the gardens about 

 Calcutta. The bulbs are small, but throw up stems about 

 fifteen inches high, bearing in March heads of noble fragrant 

 white flowers, full six inches long. Several pots of this plant in 

 full bloom afford for the time a most superb decoration for the 

 verandah. The leaves die down about the middle of June, 

 when the pots should be put away in some dry place till 

 October, when the bulbs begin to start again. At that time 

 they should be separated and repotted, the larger ones singly 

 for flowering, and the small ones three or four in a pot, to grow 

 and mature themselves for flowering the succeeding year. 

 When they have started into vigorous growth they require a 

 liberal supply of water, and are the better for the pots being 



