HARDY EXOTIC FLOWERING PLANTS. 147 
but the effect of the single large blooms of the orange lily just level 
with the tops of the grass, in early summer, where it grows wild, is at 
least as beautiful as any aspect it has hitherto presented in gardens. 
Along the bed of small rivulets, in the bottom of narrow gorges densely 
shaded by great Thujas, Arbutus trees sixty and even eighty feet high, 
and handsome large-leaved evergreen oaks on the Sierras, I saw in 
autumn numbers of lily stems seven, eight, and nine feet high, so one 
could imagine what pictures they formed in early summer ; therefore 
deep dykes and narrow shady lanes would afford congenial homes for 
various fine species. No mode of cultivating lilies in gardens is equal 
to that of dotting them through beds of rhododendrons and other 
American plants usually planted in peat; the soil of these, usually 
and very unwisely left to the rhododendrons alone, being peculiarly 
suited to the majority of the lily tribe. As for the wild garden, Mr. 
G. F. Wilson sent me a stem of Lilium superbum last year (1880) 
grown in a rich woody bottom, 114 feet high ! 
Snowflake, Leucojum—tI have rarely seen anything more beauti- 
ful than a colony of the summer Snowflake on the margin of a tuft of 
thododendrons in the gardens at Longleat. Some of the flowers were 
on stems nearly 3 feet high, the partial shelter of the bushes and good 
soil causing the plants to be unusually vigorous. Both the spring and 
summer Snowflakes (L. vernum and L. estivum) are valuable plants for 
wild grassy places. 
Gentian Lithosperm, Lithospermum prostratum.—A very dis- 
tinct, prostrate, hairy, half-shrubby plant, with a profusion of flowers 
of as fine a blue as any gentian. Thrives vigorously in any deep sandy 
soil, and in such well deserves naturalisation among low rock plants, 
etc. in sunny positions. Probably other species of the genus will be 
found suitable for the same purpose. 
Lychnis.— Handsome medium-sized perennials, with showy 
blooms, mostly of a brilliant rose or scarlet colour. If the type 
was only represented by the rose campion it would be a valuable 
one. This is a beautiful object in dry soils, on which it does not 
perish in winter. They are most fitted for association with dwarf or 
medium-sized perennials, in open places and in rich soil. 
Honeysuckle, Lonicera.—Such favourites as these must not be 
omitted. Any kind of climbing Honeysuckle will find a happy home 
in the wild garden, either rambling over stumps or hedgerows, or 
even planted by themselves on banks. 
Pea, Lathyrus.—Much having been lately written concerning the 
