H4 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 477. 



best. A variety known as the Takinozawa, raised chiefly 

 near Tokyo, has a slender root, about four feet long, and is 

 of very fine quality. In the vegetable market of Tokyo it 

 commands a respectable price. The Owura variety, so 

 named from a small place in the province of Shimosa, 

 where they produce only about two thousand roots a year, 

 attains the huge size of one and a half feet in circumference 

 and two and a half feet in length ; this kind is sold at the 

 rate of about twenty sen (a sen being a hundredth part of a 

 Japanese dollar) apiece. In its form this variety is like the 

 beet. The two kinds most popular in the markets of Kyoto 

 are the Yamato and the Horikawa ; in fact, these seem to 

 be only different names of the same variety. 



In raising Lappa much attention is naturally devoted to 

 the right selection of the soil. It is a common belief among 

 cultivators that a light sandy soil is specially adapted to it, 

 and it is true that roots grown from such soil are long and 

 slender, but they are prone to be hollow at the centre and 

 rather tough at the rind. A stronger and deeper soil, say 

 clayey loam, seems to impart firmness to the root and a 

 better flavor. To gain the most satisfactory results, the 

 soil must be plowed deep and finely pulverized, or else an 

 undue amount of labor will be required in harvesting the 

 roots. Indeed, digging Burdock is a proverbially hard 

 task ; it has become almost a fine art to do it well. Many 

 an old writer recommends digging the soil to the depth of 

 some four or five feet, and then putting in green leaves, 

 stalks, turf, and so forth, in a layer of a foot deep, and 

 covering that with the earth that was excavated. The 

 surface must then be well hoed in both directions. So 

 much care, however, is only necessary when exceptionally 

 fine specimens, for show or otherwise, are aimed at. One 

 peculiarity of Lappa is that it is not adapted to rotation — 

 that is, it thrives better if planted continuously on the same 

 soil ; in new land the roots are likely to become forked. 

 It is also grateful for good manures — compost, night-soil, 

 and especially to rice-bran — but if compost is applied it 

 must be well decomposed, or else the roots will throw off 

 too many branches. 



When the soil is properly prepared seeds are planted in 

 rows three feet apart, five or six seeds being placed every 

 six to eight inches in a row. In Owura, the usual time for 

 sowing is the early part of May or late in April. Before 

 the early part of June the young plants are thinned out, 

 leaving but one in the hill. Very often liquid manure is 

 applied two or three times before the roots are harvested 

 late in December. Another method is to plant the seeds 

 in August, so as to have the vegetable ready for spring 

 use, in which case they are sown more closely, since they 

 do not grow as vigorously as those planted in spring. 

 Lappa is a slow grower and takes over two hundred and 

 twenty days to mature. Seeds retain their vitality for five 

 years, and many a gardener asserts that the best crop is 

 obtained from those three years old. They say that new 

 seeds produce roots which throw off too many branches 

 and flower-stalks. This statement, however, is not always 

 verified. For keeping and marketing, the vegetable may 

 simply be left where it was grown or kept buried in the 

 earth like beets or turnips. 



I am aware that a discourse on Burdock will be of little 

 interest to Americans unless it contains some information 

 regarding the mode of using it, but it must be remembered 

 that Japanese cuisine differs widely from the American. I 

 need only state in general terms that, after their skin is 

 scraped or peeled off, the roots may be sliced into long 

 strips or cut into pieces of less than an inch in length, and 

 boiled with soy, salt or Spanish pepper, to impart savor to 

 them ; or, if boiled alone, they may afterward be browned 

 in sesame oil, which of itself will flavor them. Another 

 common way of cooking them is to scrape off the outer 

 skin and cut them into pieces about two inches long, then, 

 when they are boiled soft, to take them out of the pan and 

 mash them ; then make them into cakes, much as you treat 

 oyster-plants. A kind of salad, though not uncooked, is 

 also made of them. A rather unique and more elegant 



process consists in stuffing the roots with sea-eel, and boil- 

 ing them, after dipping them in a preparation containing 

 soy and pepper. Slices of lappa fried and eaten with some 

 condiments form one of the commonest dishes with us. 

 The roots are sometimes pickled in miso. There are many 

 other ways of preparing this valuable vegetable for table 

 use, but a longer description would be interesting or 

 amusing only to the curious. Each country has its own 

 Victua to inspire it with oracles in the mysteries of national 

 taste and national cookery. American housewives will 

 naturally turn to a Mrs. Lincoln or a Mrs. Rorer for in- 

 spiration on this score, and I may forbear further gastro- 

 nomic dissertation concerning our plant. 



Sapporo, Japan. InaZO NlloOC 



Plant Notes. 

 Lilium pardalinum. 



THIS is another of the Turk's Cap Lilies, and is nearly 

 related to Lilium superbum of the Atlantic coast of 

 North America. Lilium pardalinum is found throughout 

 the Coast Range, the Sierras and the Cascades, from Mono 

 County, in eastern California, and San Luis Obispo County 

 on the coast side, to the British Columbian coast, and north- 

 east to Lake Winnipeg. I lack information as to whether 

 it extends farther in southern California, or exists in the 

 high ranges of Nevada and Arizona. As it extends east of 

 the Rocky Mountains to Lake Winnipeg it must exist in at 

 least the northern Rocky Mountains. I should appreciate any 

 information with regard to its distribution in these regions. 



Lilium pardalinum is usually called a bog Lily, though 

 not altogether correctly. As a matter of fact, while it is 

 found frequently in bogs or wet places, it more often makes 

 its home in open moist meadows, in a sandy soil rich in 

 alluvium, or in deep alluvial deposits along the banks of 

 mountain streams. The bulb, as it is convenient to call it, 

 although it is properly a rhizome, is a curious and interest- 

 ing study. It may be described as a thick fleshy root- 

 stock, covered closely with one, two or three jointed, closely 

 overlapping scales, which break off easily. Generally, the 

 young rhizome terminates in two or three buds, each of 

 which produces a stalk the succeeding year. As each of 

 these growing buds will in like manner produce from one 

 to three growing bulbs (for lack of a better name) the fol- 

 lowing year, it is evident that in a term of years very large 

 clumps will be formed. Again, as each growing bulb is 

 produced at an angle to the axis of the growth of the pre- 

 ceding year, branches of the intricate, ramifying rhizome 

 are soon turned around and cross the earlier growth. In 

 this way incredibly large clumps are formed. The rhizome 

 branches two or three deep ; the interior ones are com- 

 pressed and starved, the exterior growing bulbs strong and 

 vigorous, and the entire mass easily traceable to the origi- 

 nal parent. The older rhizome becomes yellow, the new 

 growing bulbs are white, and by the scars left on the rhi- 

 zomes by the succeeding stalks many years' growth can 

 be traced. I have frequently seen masses of from fifty to two 

 hundred growing bulbs, while I once found over five hun- 

 dred in a single clump on a hillock in a bog. The vitality 

 of the rhizome is great, and pieces cut from the old rhizome 

 will form bulbs. Where a rich, loose soil permits the fullest 

 development, a clump of L. pardalinum bulbs is really 

 beautiful. The size, shape and the jointing of the scales 

 vary greatly in different kinds, and although not strictly 

 reliable in their characteristics are an aid in determining 

 the species. Some forms of L. pardalinum usually produce 

 but one terminal growing bulb, and in such forms no 

 clumps are produced and the rhizome is long and zigzag. 



This Lily grows readily from seeds or scales, and is but 

 little subject to disease. In earlier days it grew in wonder- 

 ful profusion in some of our mountain meadows, and there 

 are still numerous out-of-the-way places where it treats the 

 hunter or mountain climber to gorgeous displays of color. 



Mr. Luther Burbank, the well-known hybridizer, many 

 years ago secured some bulbs of Lilium pardalinum near 



