CHAPTER XIV 



IMPORTED AND HOME-GROWN LILIES 



There are two ways of buying Lilies ; the safe and 

 sure way of having home-grown bulbs from a house 

 of good repute, and the risky way of buying imported 

 ones at auction sales. 



By following the latter course a much larger 

 number of bulbs may be had, but there are likely 

 to be failures. It is a kind of horticultural gambling ; 

 the buyer may win a prize of a case of good bulbs 

 at a very cheap rate, or he may draw a blank and be 

 so much the loser. 



If on receiving a case of imported bulbs they are 

 found to be hmp and flabby, they should, before 

 potting or planting, be put for a time into just damp 

 cocoa-fibre, when they will soon plump up. Some- 

 times they arrive bruised and partly decayed. The 

 worst had better be burnt at once ; any that seem 

 worth saving, or have only small blue mouldy 

 patches, may be benefited by being well dusted 

 with powdered charcoal, or treated with dry powdered 

 sulphur, getting the cleansing and fungoid-growth- 

 destroying powder well in between the scales. 



It is best not to buy imported auratums early in 

 the season ; the first consignments often contain 

 bulbs insufficiently ripened. Those that reach Eng- 

 land after Christmas are likely to be better. 



