354 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 24, 1889. 



Plataiuis uccidenlalis. — See l>a_i^e ^52. 



cultivation I cannot spealc, but believe it easy of culture under 

 the same conditions as L. pardalimtni. 



L. Coliiinbianum is L. Humboldti in miniature. The bulb 

 is small and compact. The stalk is two feet or so high, and 

 the flowers true lily-shaped, the petals recurved. In color it 

 is a light orange-yellow dotted with dark spots. This Lily has 

 for its native home the plains of the Columbia River, 'it is 

 easy to grow in cultivation only needing a veil drained loam 

 and ordinary moisture. 



L. Hn7nboldti s bulb is often a pound in weight and very 

 compact. The stalk is strong and stiff. The leaves are ar- 

 ranged in circles or whorls and are many in number. Eight 

 or ten blossoms to the stalk are not unusual. These are of a 

 reddish orange with round dark spots. Ordinarily this Lily 

 will grow to a height of three or four feet. .The finest specimen 

 it has been my fortune to meet grew in the deljris bv the side 

 of a Sierra stream. It was over eight feet high and had an 

 enormous bulb. This Lily increases by seed only, in its native 

 state, and where the natural conditions happen 'to be e.xactly 

 suitable it is found in great numbers. I took over eight thous'- 

 and good bulbs from one place some years ago. It "was on a 

 hillside in volcanic soil, where years ago the gold miners had 

 cut the timber. I had spent the previous week in hard travel- 



ing to find rive hundred. I once found 

 rine bull)s of Z,. Hiitnboldti in an Oak- 

 grove near Chico. They were doing 

 splendidly in the black adobe of that 

 section. In cultivation, this Lily will 

 thrive in clay loam or sandy loam. In 

 hot sections it does Ijetter planted in the 

 shade. It needs to be planted six inches 

 to a foot deep, and will give the grower 

 value received. High up in the Sierras 

 above the pine-timber on those grand 

 slopes covered with a mixed growth of 

 Wild Cherry, iManzanita and Ceanothus, 

 L. Was liingtoni anil III finds its most con- 

 genial home. The soil is loose, decom- 

 posed granite and mould. The snow 

 lies very deep in the winter and is late 

 in melfing. It keeps the bulbs moist in 

 their early growth, and when it is gone 

 they make a very rapid growtli, often 

 blooming six or eight weeks after the 

 snow has melted. The stalk grows up 

 from three to five feet, densely leaved in 

 whorls, and with from five to twenty-five 

 flowers, pure white and with a most 

 delicious fragrance. I have seen places 

 fairly white with this Lily and the air 

 lieavy with perfume. The bulb is large. 

 I have bloomed it at Ukiah, but find it 

 rather harder to bloom than any of the 

 other native Lilies. I believe, however, 

 that it is grown quite successfully in 

 England. It should be given a loose 

 soil and abundant moisture during the 

 growing season. 



Liliitiii riibescens is like L. Washing- 

 tonianiini in every particular excepting 

 that the flower blooms out pure white 

 blotched with purple, and gradually gets 

 darker till it is of rich ruby color, hence 

 its name. Similar as the two Lilies are 

 in habit, their native home is very differ- 

 ent. L. IVashingtonianuin is a Lily of 

 the high Sierras, L. ruhcscois of the 

 Coast Range. It is found in the Red- 

 woods close to the coast, on shaded 

 hillsides in sandstone gravel, and on 

 high ridges in the chapparal. The finest 

 I have ever seen in numljers were on a 

 chapparal ridge in a soil of gravel mixed 

 \\\\\\ mould, the ordinary chapparal soil. 

 The bulb grows deep and has abundant 

 moisture in winter and spring, but in 

 the summer such places get very dry. 

 A friend of mine grows and blooms 

 them readil}' in half barrels filled with 

 sand and mould and placed in the shade. 

 Tiie first essentials with them is perfect 

 drainage and a loose, porous soil. Of 

 all our California Lilies it is the most 

 beautiful, and of all Lilies it is the most 

 deliciously fragrant. A flower will per- 

 fume the leaves of a book for months, and a well grown 

 plant is the admiration of all lieholders. — Carl Piirdy in 

 California Florist. 



Orchid Notes. 



Motions of Orchid Flowers. — Of all the numerous Orchids ex- 

 liibited at the recent show of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 held in the Temple Gardens, in London, none proved such a 

 centre of attraction as the remarkable little Bulbophylliim bar- 

 bigerwii, exhibited by the President, Sir Trevor Lawrence. It 

 was, indeed, difficult to get near the plant at all, such a crowd 

 of visitors was there, all eager to obtain a sight of the curious 

 little plant, whose beautifully fringed labellums were confinu- 

 ally in motion. Curiosity, perhaps, prompted many people 

 to see it ; indeed, it was this that first drew my own atten- 

 tion. Whatever could it be which held together that cluster 

 of people over whose shoulders others were trying to 

 peep ? " Why, it's alive," said one, and, on getting a little 

 closer, the cause of the commotion became apparent. There 

 was a curious little plant in a basket of some six inches in di- 

 ameter, bearing a sliort, drooping raceme of reddish-purple 

 flowers, each of which had a smallish lip margined with nu- 

 merous long hairs, the whole nearly an inch long, perhaps, 



