259. The cup-shaped or erect type of lily, Lilium elegans, the best of its type for general cultivation. It has many red, orange and yellow varieties 



The Incomparable Japanese Lilies— By wilhelm Mill 



Cl Jersey 



INDISPENSABLE KINDS FROM THE FAR EAST THAT CAN BE PLANTED IN NOVEMBER— 

 WHEREIN EACH SPECIES SURPASSES ANYTHING OF THE SAME TYPE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES 



Article V. in the series of "Little Monographs" 



FOUR-FIFTHS of the important species of 

 lilies are natives of Japan or the Far East, 

 and bulbs collected from the wild or grown in 

 Japanese nurseries do not reach the United 

 States much before the first of November. 



260. The TurK's-cap type. The tiger lily, the only 

 lily that is really common in gardens. It is the cheapest 

 and most permanent 



Personally, I believe that October is the 

 ideal month for planting lilies, and I prefer to 

 get American-grown bulbs in October straight 

 from the nursery beds of a specialist, because 

 such bulbs possess live roots, which give 

 them an excellent chance to become 

 established before winter, whereas store 

 bulbs have no roots, and one can hardly 

 expect them to make much root growth in 

 November. 



I frankly confess that I have not had 

 enough experience to prove this theory. But 

 a much more important point is sufficiently 

 clear. It is ten times better to plant lilies 

 in November than in the spring. The reason 

 is clear. A lily bulb has nothing like the 

 soliditv of a tulip or hyacinth bulb; it is 

 composed of soft, fleshy, loosely overlapping 

 scales, and unless they are stored in a cellar 

 in a very particular way, they lose so much 

 weight and vitality by spring that they 

 often lie dormant a whole year. Many 

 failures with lilies can be traced to spring 

 planting. 



There are more than a hundred names of 

 lily species and synonyms in the "Cyclopedia 

 of American Horticulture," to say nothing of 

 dozens of varieties in the catalogues, and in its 

 attempt to classify these the botanical mind 

 has invented a system of subgenera with long 

 technical descriptions, which writers solemnly 

 pass on to the public without realizing that it 

 simplifies nothing, explains nothing, raises no 

 clear-cut mental picture. 



But when you come to simmer down the 



whole thing, you find that lilies are shaped like 



a funnel, a cup, a bell or a Turk's cap. These 



forms are illustrated in Figs. 259 to 264. 



174 



The funnel-shaped flower is the one that has 

 a long tube. The cup-shaped flower is erect. 

 Reverse the cup and you have a bell-shaped 

 flower. The Turk's cap is a nodding flower 

 with the petals (excuse me, perianth segments) 



261. The funnel type. Lilium Japomcum, a hardy 

 lily, white inside and pink outside. The best form is 

 Known to the trade as L. Krameri 



