SerTEMBER, 1908 
Another variety of 7’. Gesneriana. Athousand bulbs 
can be bought for $15 
dozen varieties of Didieri, all of which I mean 
to have. The original colors, however, 
-were only three—red, white and pale 
yellow —and they date from 1846. 
The least rustic of all run-wild tulips, 
it seems to me, is T. platystigma, a lovely 
cherry-rose flower, three and a half inches 
long. Unlike all the others it has distinctly 
rounded petals. The blue spots, also, are 
small. I commend it to collectors for 
garden culture, but it has the reputation of 
being a shy bloomer and for the general 
public Cassandra is doubtless a more 
satisfactory flower. TJ. platystigma was 
found in the Alps in 1855. 
YELLOW AND YELLOW-EYED TULIPS 
The most glorious yellow tulip for natural- 
izing that I know of is T. Billietiana, a 
3-inch flower that breathes the spirit of 
wildness in spite of its great size. The 
fact that there is no trace of black in its centre 
is not to be taken as a sign of sophistication, 
for some of the earliest yellow tulips had no 
White variety of 7. Didieri, the blue-eyed beauty 
that may be naturalized at small cost 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
black eye. Only the inner petals are 
rounded, the outer being sharp enough to 
make the flower suitable for wild gardening. 
The bulbs cost two and a half cents each by 
the hundred, which is cheap enough for so 
magnificent a flower—a bigger yellow 
blossom than any wild flower we have. It 
was found in the Alps in 1858. I am not 
sure whether the dealers have exactly 
the right thing, for their Billietiana has 
a rosy margin and there can be no ques- 
tion that the original was an all-yellow 
flower. 
The only interest of T. Mauriana (another 
red tulip found in the Alps in 1858) is 
that it reverses the color scheme of the 
other run-wild tulips. They have black- 
eyes; this one yellow, yet this is nothing 
wonderful for the first thing the Dutchmen 
tried to do was to give their red tulips 
a yellow or white centre instead of a 
black one. It is, therefore only for collec- 
tors, not for wild-gardening. 
TWO INTERESTING EARLY TULIPS 
So far we have been speaking only of May- 
blooming or permanent tulips, whereas the 
bedding tulips (of which the bulbs must be 
lifted and stored every summer) bloom in 
April. But there is a third or extra-early 
group which bloom with the hyacinths in 
early April, a fortnight or so before the rank 
and file of bedding tulips. 
The most famous of these extra-early 
tulips are the Duc Van Thol varieties in 
many colors which were long ago described 
as T. suaveolens, and distinguished from 
the garden tulips by early bloom, dwarfness, 
fragrance and sharp petals. These dif- 
ferences seem so small (in view of their 
suspiciously wide range of colors) that they 
might easily be accounted for as early 
varieties of 7’. Gesneriana; but wild specimens 
have been found in Asia Minor that preclude 
this theory and moreover, the Duc Van 
Thols behave very differently from the 
bedding tulips under glass, since they are the 
only tulips that can be forced with certainty 
for Christmas bloom. 
However, no European specimens of 
T. suaveolens have been collected save in the 
southeastern corner of the continent and, 
therefore, I omitted it when considering the 
species that range widely over Europe. I 
have seen JT. suaveolens catalogued only 
once, and, at $1.12 a bulb on the other side, 
it is not a very tempting proposition, 
especially when one can buy Duc Van Thols 
in this country at a few cents each. But 
even the Ducs, I fear, are too familar to be 
used for naturalizing. 
A much more interesting early tulip for 
collectors is T. precox, a red tulip with a 
black eye which can be distinguished from 
the Sun’s-eye only by its season of bloom. 
This is possibly a real species as it has been 
reported from Syria but I. want to see the 
herbarium species in Europe before believing 
that it did not originate in cultivation from 
the garden tulip. However, it is very 
interesting to collectors, because cultivated 
since 1811, and it can be had for about two 
dollars and a half a dozen. 
61 
The New Yellow Lily 
By IT. McApam, New Jersey 
OR UNA TELY yellow is a rare 
color among lilies. We have a 
good bell-shaped one in Lilimm Canadense 
and a good cup-shaped yellow lily in a 
variety of L. elegans; but heretofore there 
has been no cheap, easily grown yellow 
lily of the Turk’s cap type save one with 
an odor which many people find disagreeable, 
viz., L. pomponium, var. Pyrenaicum. 
The most promising candidate for this 
position is Lilium tenuijolium, var. Golden 
Gleam, which has the further interest of 
being the product of crossing. Nothing 
is more obvious than the need of hybrid- 
izing the lilies and nothing would seem 
easier. Indeed the seedlings always look 
wonderfully different up to flowering time, 
and then alas! 
there is nothing Haye, | 
new. I do not know aS 
a single lily hybrid 
beside the nankeen 
lily (L. testaceum) 
that has introduced 
any really impor- 
tant new color or 
form, unless the 
following proves 
itself to be worthy 
of general cultiva- 
tion. 
The new yellow 
lily is the product 
of crossing the Si- 
berian coral _ lily 
with a white variety 
of the Turk’s cap 
(L. tenuifolium and 
L. Martagon, var. 
album) so that the 
yellow color is a 
most surprising 
outcome. The new 
lily was secured by 
Mr. E. Huftelen, of 
Leroy, N. Y., who 
sends the following 
particulars: 
The Siberian 
tas 
‘i 
coral lily blooms (4 
from about June The new Golden Gleam 
6th to July; has lily, fowering July 1 
scarlet flowers 
about one and one-half to two inches across; 
and established bulbs will produce about 
seven flowers. 
The Turk’s cap blooms from June 15th 
to July roth; has purple or whitish flowers 
of the same size; and established bulbs 
will produce about twenty flowers. 
The new lily, Golden Gleam, blooms 
June ist or 2nd, has yellow flowers; and old 
bulbs will produce ten or twelve flowers. 
The only trace of Martagon influence would 
seem to be the tendency to flower in whorls, 
which is more significant than the additional 
number of flowers and the greater height. 
Both the reputed parents have strongly 
revolute petals. 
