April 14, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



145 



the geysers in Sonoma County, California. From seed- 

 lings of these, selections were made, which on arriving at 

 maturity were cross-fertilized, and this process was repeated 

 several times. I saw a field of the last crosses, and paral- 

 lels could be seen of nearly every native form of L. parda- 

 linum, with giant and dwarf, one flowered and many-flow- 

 ered forms which nature had never attempted. Mr. Bur- 

 bank firmly believes that not only all of our varieties of 

 L. pardalinum, but all other Pacific coast Lilies, have a 

 common parentage and have diversified in obedience to 

 environment, and in support of his belief adduces the ease 

 with which all can be hybridized. In this connection I 

 take the liberty of quoting Mr. G. Reuthe, the able super- 

 intendent of the Thomas S. Ware Nurseries, in London, on 

 the same subject : " Lilium pardalinum seems, in my mind, 

 the easiest for crossing, and I have not the slightest doubt, 

 judging by these results obtained under the most unfavor- 

 able circumstances, that most of the so-called species are 

 natural varieties. '' If Nature, unaided, has not been quite 



localities have the same type. As this is true of L. parda- 

 linum, it is plain to be seen that, although a description 

 based on a large number of specimens, all drawn from the 

 same locality, may seem to its author quite definite, it 

 becomes of little value when, by a wide acquaintance with 

 localities, we find an endless chain of types varying to one 

 side or the other of the published description. In such a 

 species we may, like Mr. Burbank with his seedlings, 

 select some form of unusual merit which we can maintain 

 by propagation or by continuously collecting from the 

 same locality. From the florist's point this is the proper 

 thing to do. I fear that we will never be able to divide L. 

 pardalinum into botanical varieties which the field botanist 

 can follow. 



Mr. Baker in his synopsis mentions variety Californicum, 

 variety puberulum and variety Bourgaisi. In Bolany of 

 California the type and variety angustifolium are men- 

 tioned, and variety minor has also been described, I think, 

 by Baker. The Lily which has been sold incorrectly for 



Fig. 17. — Red Cedars in New England. — See page 142. 



so lavish of her forms of this beautiful Lily as when 

 assisted by so expert a cultivator as Mr. Burbank, she has 

 yet been overbountiful in varieties of L. pardalinum, and I 

 long ago gave up trying to fit them to published descriptions. 

 In identifying or, more correctly, in attempting to iden- 

 tify the many forms which I have met in seventeen years 

 of mountaineering, I had the advantage of Dr. Wallace's 

 Notes on Lilies, which is undoubtedly the best guide, and 

 includes Mr. J. G. Baker's Synopsis of Lilies. In addition 

 to this, Dr. Wallace some years ago favored me with 

 colored drawings of the varieties of this Lily, 

 ing to his work. I have seen plants which 

 mated these descriptions and drawings, but I 

 confess that I have seldom seen or grown lots of this 

 Lily which I could unhesitatingly refer to either variety. 

 It is a peculiarity of many variable species of Liliaceac on 

 our coast, that while in a given locality a vast number of 

 specimens vary within well-defined limits, scarcely two 



accord- 

 approxi- 

 have to 



some years as Lilium Roezlii is a form of L. pardalinum. 

 L. Roezlii proper is different. Some of Luther Burbank's 

 seedlings have been named, and the Thomas S. Ware Nur- 

 series, in London, originated and named several hybrids 

 of L. pardalinum. Of these L. pardalinum, var. Iuteum, 

 is L. pardalinum x L. Parryii. L. pardalinum, var. carm- 

 matum, is L. pardalinum x L. maritimum. Mr. Burbank's 

 beautiful hybrids of L. pardalinum on many species have 

 not, I believe, yet been disseminated. In every way the 

 species is extremely variable. I have seen it growing 

 where stalks from seven to nine feet high were common. 

 Four bulbs transplanted from this lot to my garden (a 

 heavy clay loam) produced stalks the first year nine feet 

 high, with from twenty-three to twenty-five flowers on 

 each. Low-growing forms are not uncommon, but under 

 favorable conditions five to seven feet is the ordinary height. 

 To give any accurate idea of the forms colored plates 

 should accompany descriptions. In default of these I pass 



