12 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 411.- 



extremes, giving the people of each locality an opportunity 

 for a short course of study on one or more subjects in 

 which they are specially interested, with the use of a few 

 books at* small cost and the privilege of instruction 

 from a specialist to whom they can apply for such 

 particular information as they need. Books are named 

 for courses of reading on the following subjects, and 

 others will be added as the circumstances demand : 

 Apple Culture ; Small Fruits ; the Principles of Agriculture ; 

 Vegetable Culture ; Field Crops ; Dairying ; Soils and Till- 

 age ; Floriculture ; the Enemies of Crops. There can be no 

 question that a class of men and women, whether young 

 or older, who enter with seriousness into such relations 

 with the college faculty and with the books they recom- 

 mend, will derive immediate practical benefit in their 

 calling, and, what is of much more importance, they will 

 receive a mental stimulus and enlargement of thought 

 which will give them more accuracy of observation and 

 breadth of view. 



Japanese Lilies as Articles of Food and Commerce. 



E.IES possess the quality of combining beauty with 

 gastronomic value ; indeed, in Japan they are con- 

 sidered even more useful than ornamental, and in books 

 on horticulture and botany we find these plants treated 

 more frequently under the group of edible than of orna- 

 mental subjects ; that is, far more account is made of the 

 bulbs of the Lily than of its flowers. I do not mean that 

 the beauty of the many varieties, in their manifold shapes 

 and sizes, in their rich coloring of crimson, pink-ver- 

 milion, yellow, white, purple and orange, is not appreci- 

 ated by us ; far from it, and not a flower garden is regarded 

 complete without them. At the same time, there never is 

 a well-chosen menu which does not include this bulb 

 among its dainties. Moreover, from time immemorial we 

 find Lilies thus mentioned, both for their utility and beauty. 

 No wonder, as different varieties grow wild and luxuriantly 

 on hills and along dales throughout the length and breadth 

 of the country, our forefathers could but notice their flow- 

 ers, conspicuous even in the rich flora of Japan, and a little 

 examination could not fail to convince them of the abun- 

 dant store of nutritive material in their bulbs. According 

 to Miquel, and to Franchet and Savatier, there are no less 

 than seventeen Japanese species ofLilium, but these include 

 a large number of varieties. 



The Ainu, an aboriginal race supposed to have once in- 

 habited the whole country, but now confined to a few scat- 

 tered hamlets on the northern islands of Hokkaido (Yesso 

 of older maps), where they still subsist by fishing and hunt- 

 ing, depend for their vegetable diet chiefly on the bulbs of 

 Lilium Glehni. From the bulb of this plant, called 

 Turep in their language, the Ainu extract a compara- 

 tively pure kind of starch. This they make into a hard 

 cake with a hole in the middle, through which a string is 

 passed to hang it by. We can easily imagine that our 

 ancestors may have done likewise, since many varieties 

 flourish in the south, although the climate and the soil 

 there are not as favorable to the growth of Lilies as are 

 those of the Hokkaido, whether we consider the color or 

 number of the flowers or the size of the bulbs. On Hok- 

 kaido we often meet with a stalk bearing as many as thirty 

 flowers, and that without any fertilization. Especially 

 where there is moisture do they thrive well. By the side 

 of brooks, which are found everywhere in the mountain- 

 ous districts of the country, our eyes are constantly greeted 

 by the various members of this charming family. Even 

 in their wild state the flowers of Lilium auratum attain a 

 size of over six inches in diameter. The bulbs of nearly 

 every variety are edible, but those of wild growth always 

 taste sweeter than those under cultivation. It is said that 

 over one hundred different varieties were known to the 

 gardeners of past centuries, though at present only a little 

 over half that number are cultivated. 



The two kinds most used for culinary purposes are the 



Lilium tigrinum, known here as the Oni-yuri (literally, the 

 Ogre Lily), or Ryori-yuri (the Cooking Lily), and the 

 Lilium concolor, var. parchellum. This latter is also 

 called Hime-yuri (the Princess Lily). Chemical analysis 

 has shown that we have not been deceived in our appreci- 

 ation of this plant. It proves that the bulbs contain no 

 small amount of nitrogenous matter. I will here give the 

 result of the analysis made at the Government Sanitary 

 Bureau : 



Water 69630 



Nitrogen, . . . . . .3 402 



Fat 0.015 



Starch, . . . . . . .19.100 



Dextrin, . . . . . - . 1 .qi 5 



Glucose, 0.620 



Pectose, ...... 2.444 



Fibre, ....... 1.416 



Ash, ....... 1.350 



Total per cent 98.587 



From this table it is clear that the Lily-bulbs furnish an 

 important source of nutriment. A little plot of six feet 

 square can be made to yield from sixty to seventy bulbs, and- 

 at this rate an acre will produce some eighty thousand 

 bulbs. There are produced, according to official statistics 

 of 1S88, four hundred and thirty thousand pounds of bulbs 

 in the market gardens of Japan, valued at nine thousand 

 and three hundred yen. These numbers do not and can- 

 not include those raised in private gardens. In price they 

 range from half a cent to two cents apiece, according to 

 their size and to the season. They are usually boiled and 

 eaten with sugar; otherwise they would be too bitter to 

 be palatable. When they are boiled soft they remind us 

 of beans, both in their consistency and taste. The bitter- 

 ness seems to lie especially along the edge of the bulbous 

 scales ; and, consequently, by slicing the edge before 

 cooking greater sweetness is insured. The bulbs are 

 also very often boiled with rice. The starch made 

 from them will keep indefinitely, and was, therefore, in 

 former times, stored to ward off the sufferings of famine. 

 The variety Longiflorum, Thunb., called the Teppo-yuri 

 (the Gun Lily), otherwise known as the Riu-kiu-yuri, be- 

 cause of its supposed original habitat, is esteemed for its 

 flowers, but its bulbs are too bitter for kitchen uses. They 

 give, however, starch of excellent quality. A variety 

 known as Aka-kanoko, which grows to the height of 

 four feet, with flowers spotted crimson, has bulbs of a 

 purplish color, bitter, and altogether unfit for cooking, but 

 furnishing starch of no mean quality. The best way to 

 cook the bulbs for the American table is, we have found 

 from experience, to boil them and use them as salad, 

 with a dressing of cream and eggs. The small bulblets 

 that appear at the axils of Lily-leaves can also be eaten 

 roasted, and the petals of some varieties growing wild in 

 Hokkaido make an exceedingly pretty salad. 



This reminds me that some years ago a Harvard profes- 

 sor said that the future food-supply of America could be 

 greatly and advantageously increased by acclimatizing 

 foreign, and especially Japanese, edible plants. I was, 

 therefore, pleased to hear, recently, that the Department of 

 Agriculture has been circulating reports regarding the cul- 

 tivation and culinary uses of Lilies. But, as it will take 

 some time to naturalize them in America, the importation 

 of bulbs will not at once be perceptibly decreased. In 

 fact, these bulbs have for some years been an article of 

 export to Europe and America, and we at one time thought 

 that they would soon become naturalized abroad, and 

 were afraid the trade in them must.soon cease, but thus far 

 it shows no diminution. Take, for instance, the amount 

 exported from but one firm in Yokohama, the Ueki-shokai, 

 in 1890 — some 913,880 bulbs were sent out, including 

 thirty-one different varieties. Among them the so-called 

 Mountain Lilies (Yama-yuri) were by far the most im- 

 portant, their number amounting to 550,569. The next 

 most important variety was the Gun Lilies (Teppo-yuri), 

 and these amounted to little over 136,000. 



