THE BIG BOG AND ITS LILIES 163 



send up their young growths through light scrub of bush 

 or fern. When the stalk is mature, its first eighteen 

 inches or so will be found bare of leaves ; and, to such a 

 height, these Lilies like to be shrouded in vegetation, 

 which secures their young shoots from drought, storm, 

 and frost. Even where the naked stem is not found as 

 an indication, almost all Lilies enjoy a light covert, and 

 dislike a parching isolation. The sun-loving species — 

 Heldreichi, tenuifolium,philippinense, concohr,medeoloeides, 

 avenaceum, callosum, chalcedonicum, candidum, and testa- 

 ceum — are more or less exceptional, of course, even if one 

 can ever make a rule for candidum and testaceum (which 

 one never can, as candidum sometimes seems to revel in 

 shade) ; but, in practice, you can rarely do wrong by 

 planting Lilies among Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Daphnes, 

 and big ferns. Auratum, again, sets the fashion in the 

 matter of food. Auratum has not the perverted gross- 

 ness of giganteum, for whom no garbage is too disgusting ; 

 but auratum is still a rank, hearty feeder, and you cannot 

 possibly give it too rich and solid nourishment. The 

 more manure it has the more violently will it grow from 

 year to year, and the more years will it magnificently 

 endure. Naturally the manure must not be too new or 

 crude ; but it cannot easily be too rich. And this rule 

 governs almost all Lilies, especially all the forms of 

 speciosum, which, however beautiful,' have no place on my 

 bank, because they bloom so late that the frosts begin, 

 as a general thing, before their buds unfold. 



The twin Lilies, long confused, monadelphum and 

 szovitzianum, are not, I fancy, quite so greedy. They 

 are very splendid people, far too seldom grown, very 

 stalwart and perennial, when once established in good 

 light loam, in the companionship of trees or bushes. In 

 style they are tall and leafy, with abundance of brilliant, 

 big yellow flowers, like very large canary-coloured Marta- 



