CULTURE OF FAVORITE PLANTS. 
LED BO VL Bs 
We 
ne EAT and modest in flower, and not without some claim to a subdued 
Sa magnificence, this lovely member of the Figwort family is of com- 
paratively recent introduction from Japan. The favorite species is 
denominated L. floribunda, from its free flowering habit, often almost 
hiding its foliage under the wealth of its blossoms. The color, 
which is most frequently an orange or pure yellow on the under 
side, but shading upward to a scarlet or deep, velvety crimson on the upper 
side of the flower, contrasts finely with the light green foliage of the plant. 
It is a slender-branched plant and of a tidy, compact growth; it can be formed 
into the resemblance of a ball encircling and entirely hiding the pot in which 
it grows, making it a very desirable house ornament. The soil in which it can 
be best grown would comprise, in about equal parts, sand, leaf-mold, loam and manure. 
The Libonia delights in plenty of pot-room, water and liquid manure in the growing and 
flowering season, but abhors stagnant moisture, and therefore should receive its supplies 
in limited but repeated quantities. It blooms from December to May, after which time it 
should be placed out of doors in some partially shaded situation. It is most frequently 
propagated from cuttings about an inch long taken from the young shoots. It can be 
raised from seed if sown early, amd will flower the season following. 
In those sections of our country where there is little or no frost, it makes a very fine 
ornamental plant for outdoor cultivation, either to stand alone or to be grown as a border 
plant. It is not quite hardy enough to withstand our northern winters, though it will 
bear considerable cold, and blooms well in about sixty degrees of heat. The beauty of 
the plant in flower, and the ease with which it may be cultivated, should render it a more 
general favorite than it has yet become. 
LIDDY. 
SOR outdoor culture these bulbs require a good, sandy loam, which 
os should be dug to a depth say of eighteen inches, and well worked; 
(Sa) the Japanese, Chinese, and a few other species do best in a clay loam. 
The bulbs ought to be set five or six inches deep and left undis- 
turbed for several years, as they thrive much better and give more 
bloom. Stable manure, until thoroughly decayed, or any other fermenting 
material, is obnoxious to them, but leaf-mold or plenty of good, old cow- 
manure would be a wholesome enrichment. In removing, it is best to keep them 
’ out of the ground as short a time as possible; and if bulbs received from seedsmen 
are in a shriveled state, a wrapping of moss, or cotton slightly dampened, for two 
or three days before planting, would freshen them unless past redemption. Many 
of the choicer variety of Lilies are grown as house plants in cities by those who have no 
gardens. A good soil for their growth comprises equal parts of loam and peat, or leaf- 
a7 
ai 
