842 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



(1509. Propagation. The common method is by offsets; but they may be raised from seed, which 

 ripens readily, and is to be treated in all respects like that of the tulip, the seedlings of the crown-impe- 

 rial flowering in the fifth or sixth year, and tliose of the two other species in the third or fourth year. 



fiolO. Culture of flowering bulbs. They delight in a light soil, not too wet nor very full of dung. It 

 should be dug deep, and the bulbs may be planted six inches deep, and from eighteen inches to two feet 

 distant every way ; but they have the best effect in a mingled flower-border. They need not be taken 

 up above once in three years, when the stems are withered in May or June, and they should not be kept 

 longer out of tlie ground than two months. 



SuBSECT. 9. Lilj/. — Lilium, L. Hexund. Monogt/n. L. and IAUcb, J. Lis, Fr. ; 



Lilie, Ger. ; and Giglio, Ital. 

 6311. Of the lily there are sixteen species introduced in Britain, and the whole of 

 them may be reckoned very choice flowers. We shall notice particularly, only those 

 species, of which numerous varieties have been produced. These arc : — 



The white li!j {L. Caiulidiim) {B«t. Miit;. 

 278.) has a large scaly bulb, a leafy 

 stem, from three to four feet in height, 

 terminating in large fure white tlowers 

 on pedimcles. It is a native of the 

 Levant, and was in most gardens in 

 Gen-ard's time. Of this species there 

 are above eight varieties. 



The orange lily (L. ImWifinm,) (B,<t. 

 Miifi-36.) has a scaly bulb, a leafy stem, 

 two feet and a half 'high, terminating 

 in orange-colored flowers. Sometimes 



the stem produces small green bulbs in 

 the axillse of the leaves. Of this spe- 

 cies, there are eight or ten varieties and 

 subvarieties. 

 The martagon, or Turk's cap, (L. Mar. 

 taf:i;i) \l'vf. Mog. R!i.-.), has a large 

 scaly bulb, a stalk furnished with nar- 

 row leaves, near three feet high and 

 teraiinatinL' peduncles of tine carmine 

 flowers in July. Of this species there 

 are half a do^en varieties, besides the 



scarlet martagon {L. Chalceduiticiim), 

 of wliich there are also different sorts. 

 Besides the above species and their va- 

 rieties, there are the L. Canadense, 

 siijierlmm, or Turk's cap ; the Pompo- 

 iiium, and TinHnum, or tiger lily; the 

 Japonicum, or .Tapan lily, with stems of 

 5 feet, and the flowers 7 inches broad, 

 pure Khitewith a streak of blue; all 

 equally meriting cultivation as select 

 flowers. 



6312. Propagation. Tliis is almost always by off et -bulbs ; but new varieties may be 

 raised from seed, which ripens in most sorts in Au<,Jist : being treated as directed for 

 raising new varieties of the narcissus, the young bulbs; will flower the fourth and fifth 

 years. 



6313. Culture offloivering bulbs. The more common sorts, species, and varieties, will thrive in any 

 soil and situation, even under the shade of trees. The Canadian, Pomponian, and Philadelphian mar- 

 tagons are somewhat tender, and require the protection of allies or rotten bark in winter. Tliey are ge- 

 nerally planted in borders, and need not be taken up oftcner than e^ - ry three or four years in September, 

 and replanted six inches deep in the October following. None of tl'.e species can be safely transjilanted, 

 after they have pushed leaves, without weakening them so as to jjrcvrnt their flowering for several years. 

 This remark, indeed, will apply to most bulbous-rooted plants. Grifllh, of S iuth Lambeth, whose supe- 

 rior skill in the cultivation of bulbous plants is well known {Hart. Trans, iv. 544.), has been in the prac- 

 tice of keeping the liliiim japonicum in pots, protected by a green-hou.'.c or garden-frame ; but he thinks 

 they thri\ e best in the former. He places the bulb in twcnty-four-sizcd pots, not lower than an inch from 

 the surface of the mould, which is composed of about two thirds peat and one third loam, the bottom of 

 the pot being covered to the depth of two inches, with broken pieces of tile and the rough siftings of peat. 

 The plants are kept entirely from frost, and are watered very little when in a dormant state, for they are 

 then very impatient of wet in excess. The pots kept in the green-house are placed at a distance from the 

 flue to prevent the mould drying quickly. {Horf. Trans, iv. 554:.) Brooks grows in a brick-pit, which 

 he can cover with mats or glasses at pleasure ; but he says, it " appears to be sufficiently hardy to en- 

 dure our winters, as I have had a bed of them two years in the open ground without protection." 

 (Hort. Trans, iv. 552.) 



SuBSECT. 10. Amari/llidece. — Ainart/Uis, L. Hex. Monog. L. and Amaryllidece, B. P. 

 X-is-narcisse, Fr. ; Narcissenlilie, Ger. ; and Giglio Narcisso, Ital. 

 6314. The amaryllidece is a splendid family, lately subdivided into those of Nerine, 

 Coburgia, and Brunsvigia (see Bot. Mag.), of which almost every species may be consi- 

 dered a select flower. The A. amabilis, Josephina, and Vittata, are reckoned the most 

 splendid bulbous-rooted plants; and the A. for mosissit7ia, or Jacobea lily ; Sarniensis, or 

 Gxiernsey lily ; Belladonna, &c. are less magnificent, but of very great beauty. Most of 

 the species are green-house or stove plants, and natives of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 China, or South America. Various hybrids of this family have been produced by Her- 

 bert, Sweet, Gower, and others. {Hort. Trans, iv. 488. &c.) 



G315. Propagation and culture. New sorts, as in similar cases, are procured by seed ; but the most usual 

 mode, as few of these plants have ripened their seeds in this country, is l.y offsets from the flowering 

 bulbs, removed yearly, or every time the bulbs are taken out of the ground. The great art in cultivating 

 these, and all other bulbs, is to procure vigorous leaves, as on those depend the quantity of nutritive 

 matter prepared and deposited in the bulb, and consequently its ability to flower the following season. The 

 circumstance of several of these plants, as the Guernsey lily, flowering iri the autumn, and producing 

 their leaves afterwards under the disadvantages of a winter's sun, is the reason why fhey have been hitherto 

 cultivated with so little success in this country, and why we are obliged to import the bulbs annually 

 from other countries. The observations of Knight on this subject are particularly valuable ; they more 

 immediately refer to the Guernsey lily, but they are equally applicable to all exotic bulbs. Bulbous 

 roots increase in size, and proceed in acquiring powers to produce blossoms, only during the periods 

 in which they have leaves, and in which such leaves are exposed to light; and these organs always 

 oi)erate most efficiently when they are young, and have just attained their full growth. The bulb 

 of the Guernsey lilv, as it is usually cultivated in this country, rarely produces leaves till September, 

 or the begiiniing of October, at which period, the quantity of light aflTorded by our climate is pro- 

 bably quite insufficient for a plant, which is said to be a' native of the v/arm and bright climate 

 of Jai)an ; and before the return of spring, its leaves are necessarily grown old, and nearly out of 

 office, even when they have been safely protected from frost through the winter. It is, therefore, not 

 extraordinary, that a bulb of this species, which has once expended itself in affording flowers, should but 

 very slowly recover the power of blossoming again. Considering, therefore, the d'eficiency of light and 

 heat, owing to the late period of its vegetation, as the chief cause why this plant so often fails to produce 

 flowers, I inferred that nothing more would he required to make it blossom, as freely, at least, as it does 

 in Guernsey, than such a slight degree of artificial heat, applied early in the summer, as would prove 

 sufficient to make the bulbs vegetate a few weeks earlier than usual in the autumn. Early in the summer 

 of 1816, a bulb, which had blossomed in the preceding autumn, was subjected to such a degree of artifici-il 

 beat, as occasioned it to vegetate six weeks, or more, earlier tlian it would otherwise have done. It did 

 not, of course, produce any flowers ; but in the following season it blossomed early and strongly, and 



