102 PIGTOBIAL PBAGTIGAL BULB GBOWING, 



Eucharis Lilies are stove plants, provided with large, deep 

 green, broad-bladed leaves, and yielding tall spikes of lovely blooms 

 usually twice a year. Three crops a year can be obtained from 

 the same plants, but it is a sweating process, and ultimately 

 ends in failure. Mellow loam, with a fourth part of peat, or leaf 

 soilj and some coarse sand added, makes a suitable compost. Good 

 drainage is absolutely essential. The size of pot used may vary 

 with the taste or needs of the grower, but as a guide to the 

 requirements of Eucharises, it may be said that six bulbs will find 

 accommodation in a 10-inch pot. Never re-pot Eucharises except 

 to save them from starvation ; liquid manure and top- dressings 

 will keep plants healthy for a good w^hile after the pots have become 

 well filled with roots. 



After flowering, Eucharises should be rested by a reduction of the 

 water supply, and a temperature 5^ or 10° lower than that in 

 which they have been growing ; but it is necessary to add that 

 ''drying ofi"'' or *'cool treatment" are alike productive of failure. 

 The temperature for Eucharises should never fall below 60°.^ 



The bugbear of Eucharis growers is the " mite," a tiny insect, 

 Rhizoglyphus echinopus by name, which infests bulbs that have 

 suffered from some error of treatment. The mites can be killed 

 by soaking the bulbs for fifteen minutes in a mixture made of 

 i lb. of potassium sulphide dissolved in 3 gallons of water heated 

 to 115"^. After their bath, put the bulbs on a sunny shelf in the 

 stove to dry, giving them no other shade than a sheet of thin 

 paper affords. Pot the bulbs after three weeks of dry treatment, 

 using small pots and sandy soil ; plunge them where there is a 

 moderate bottom heat, and plenty of moisture in the atmosphere, 

 but of direct watering there must be none until both roots and 

 leaves have made considerable progress. 



Selectio7i of Eucharises. 



Candida, white ; very 

 pretty, but smaller in 

 all its parts than grandi- 

 flora. 



Burf ordiensis and Stevensi 

 are hybrids ; the former 

 has white flowers, and 

 the latter has also white 

 flowers, but with a dis- 

 tinct yellow corona* 



grandiflora, white ; in 

 every way the best 

 Eucharis. The Amazon- 

 ica of most gardens is 

 correctly grandiflora. 



