502 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ December 23, 1371. 



requires to be carefally stored, it is not more than an every- 

 other-year crop. It is subject to the disadvantage of not being 

 saleable except when ripe, and when ripe it must be eaten to 

 the moment, or it is gone ; but if any one should be induced 

 by what has been said to make a plantation, I will add a little 

 more advice from my own experience. Tou may grow early 

 Pears as pyramids, but not the larger and later sorts, for if you 

 do the equinoctials will probably blow down at least one-half of 

 your crop. These heavy Pears should be grown in a spot well 

 sheltered from the West, as bushes or as espaliers, or, it yon 

 like, as cordons ; they will require careful watching for a month 

 before they are gathered, otherwise you will have a visit from 

 a family of tomtits, who will just make one small incision near 

 the stalk in the finest fruits, thus ruining them as effectually 

 as the blackbird with his larger mandible and more vigorous 

 thrusts. Above all, before you plant Pears make sure that 

 your ground is perfectly dry, and is not subject to the influence 

 of late frosts, or year after year you will be disappointed of a 

 crop. The Apple and the Plum, which blossom later, will suc- 

 ceed where the Pear will fail. 



I have already named the best varieties of Pear, out of the 

 thousand sorts which have been raised and thought worthy of 

 being named ; there are many others of undoubted excellence, 

 but I do not think that there are any to beat the sorts above 

 mentioned in their season. A small fruit farmer does not 

 require many sorts. Two or three varieties will be quite suffi- 

 cient for his purpose, if he seeks for quality — Louise Bonne, 

 Bsurre Diel, and Easter Baurre ; if for the northern markets, 

 the Green Chisel, or any very early variety which succeeds in 

 the district. Summer Doyenne, and the Bon Chretien, which 

 last is one of the best of all. Pears. 



With regard to Cherries, I doubt if it would pay at all to grow 

 them for market purposes on the Mahaleb stock. They must 

 be planted for orchards on the wild Cherry stock ; but unless 

 the soil is good, notwithstanding the old adage, that " a Cherry 

 tree will buy a horse before a Pear will buy the saddle," they 

 will be some years before they come into profitable bearing. A 

 man who plants a Cherry orchard when he is turned fifty, must 

 do it for the benefit of his successors, and they will have good 

 cause to thank him, for the produce of an orchard at thirty 

 years of age will average something like 20s. per tree, which, 

 taking seventy-five trees to the acre, will give an abundant 

 return. 



Out of the many varieties which appear upon the lists, I 

 believe none are more profitable than the Early Black, the 

 Bigarreau, and the Waterloo ; but this, again, is a matter of 

 soil and climate, and as in all other fruits, the first thing to be 

 done is to ascertain what sorts fiourish best in the neighbour- 

 ing fields ; bat if Cherries are planted it should be in consider- 

 able quantities, as from the moment they begin to colour till 

 they are gathered, they will require to be protected from the 

 depredations of birds. Here, again, blackbirds are notable 

 ofienders. So, too, are starlings and jays if there are any in 

 the country, and even sober-minded rooks are not above the 

 temptation. 



{To be continued.) 



NOTES ON THE LILIES. 



Tour well-known correspondent "D.," of Daal, s 

 (page 440), that I should give a few notes on Lilies. If I could 

 help anyone who has but lately taken up my favourite flower 

 I should be only too glad to do so. 



I must begin by saying that we have all a great deal to learn 

 in Lily-growing. Por instance, why do three out of a dozen 

 L. anratum bulbs — all to every appearance equally sound, 

 equally fresh, and of the same age and size — rot or break-up 

 into small bulbs, while the other nine, apparently identical, 

 planted in the same situation and in the same soil, and having 

 the same watering, grow strongly and well ? I have seen this 

 over and over again, both in sun and shade, in pots under cold 

 glass, and in open borders. We have tried a great many ex- 

 periments, and are trying many for next season, but this is 

 still a mystery here. Wireworm will not account for it. A 

 number of L. auratum bulbs, planted in deep peat among dwarf 

 Ehododendrons, or making a small jungle for themselves, have 

 succeeded best here. This season, however, some have been 

 attacked for the first time with a brown spot, in some cases 

 showing itself on the leaves, in others on the flower-buds, which 

 seemed to destroy the vigour of the plant for a time. We had 

 a great many L. auratums attacked in this way in a bed en- 

 closed by Beard's glass walls. The disease seemed suddenly to 



have worn itself out, and the stems looked better and the 

 flowers came out — after a fashion. I took specimens of the 

 diseased leaves and flower-buds to a meeting of the Eoyal Hor- 

 ticultural Society's Scientific Committee one day, when there 

 were several foreign authorities present, including M. Linden, 

 but the disease appeared to be unknown to all. In most cases 

 the bulbs were healthy and continued to be so. I have seen 

 L. anratum show beautifully in a root bed in a friend's garden, 

 all the better for being rather dwarf, which was owing, pro- 

 bably, to the bulbs not being large. 



" D.," of Deal, speaks of the difficulty of growing L. Browni. 



1 have bought bulbs from Van Hontte, and from Turner of 

 Slough, but cannot as yet get anything like the strength and 

 vigour of the Longiflorum varieties. I believe Major Trevor 

 Clarke grows this Lily without difficulty, and with a little arti- 

 ficial heat. He gave me a bulb last season with its shoot 



2 inches above the pot, which flowered in course of time well, 

 and the bulb has besides greatly increased in size, producing 

 two promising baby bulbs on the stem, so I hope to do still 

 better with it this season. I have some L. Browni planted in 

 a large rootwork, the soil of which is composed of two parts 

 fibrous peat and one part of loam, and I fancy this position 

 will suit it. The only other Lilies I have got on badly with 

 are Tennifoiium and its allied Lily Baschianum, and Szovits- 

 ianum, which bloom well with us one year, but do not keep 

 healthy. I am trying them in the rootwork sheltered but facing 

 north. Oars is a hot country in summer. 



I believe with " D ," of Deal, that L. auratum is probably a 

 hybrid. There would hardly be such endless varieties of colour 

 and form if it were not so. I agree with him, too, that its 

 social position should not be above L. speciosum, though when 

 really well grown it is a grand flower. Who that saw the won- 

 derful tub with its some 130 flowers standing about 10 feet 

 high, that was shown a conple of years ago at South Kensing- 

 ton, could ever think otherwise ? Everybody coming into the 

 room seemed inclined instinctively to say, " Oh ! " and to take 

 off their hats to it. The overpowering perfume was no joke to 

 the Committee, who must have thought of the Upas tree. 



I am afraid we must unlearn " lancifolium." I have kicked 

 against changes in nomenclature as hard as anybody, but the 

 scientific authorities will have their way sooner or later. The 

 changes are not only with us. To a young but high scientific 

 authority I was groaning over the alterations the British 

 Museum is making in the ndmes of shells, instancing that I 

 had found my old friend Bosteliaria set down as Fusns, which 

 everybody was familiar with as the name of a very different 

 shell. I got no sympathy. My friend said, " I take the other 

 view ;" and then completed my dismay by saying that in his 

 science they were taking away about the only Latin name of a 

 beetle I knew, the Blatta orientalis (cockroach), and giving the 

 name Blatta to an out-of-door bug. A universal language is of 

 course most desirable, and if the only way to arrive at this is 

 to go back to the original name, I suppose we must submit. I 

 believe the name lancifolium was previously given to another 

 Lily not now in cultivation. 



'The Lilies with us which give no trouble are the speciosum 

 varieties, the tigrinum, and the longiflorum, some of the cana- 

 dense type, and Leichtlinii. This last is a very beautiful, grace- 

 ful, and most satisfactory Lily. You have lately had the best 

 of twelve Koses ; if you had the best of f onr Lilies I should 

 give in L. Leichtlinii as one. It is difficult for many new 

 growers to realise how thoroughly hardy the great majority of 

 Lilies are. I have this season given away many bulbs, and am 

 almost always asked whether it would not be safer to keep 

 them in the greenhouse through the winter. Why I believe 

 both L. speciosum and auratum show best in a sheltered place 

 is, that though they will stand a fair amount of rain, yet if 

 exposed to drifting rain in large drops accompanied by high 

 wind, the pollen gets smeared over the petals. 



In an old-fashioned garden at Wandsworth, where there was 

 a small lawn leading from the principal one, enclosed by tall 

 shrubs and sheltered from all winds, I planted a bed of many 

 sorts of Lilies. They seemed perfectly happy, and I showed 

 flowers from this bed at South Kensington after a week of wet 

 and stormy weather. Of course a few of the old flowers were 

 damaged, but most were perfect. 



I have seen L. speciosum growing perfectly in an exposed 

 garden near Eoehdale. The lady of the house looked after the 

 bed herself, but if I remember rightly no protection was given 

 in winter, though the climate is cold and damp. L. longiflorum 

 we find to bloom best in a bed of dwarf shrubs. It comes up 

 so early before the frosts are over, that it often gets cut by the 



