THE GIANT ASPHODELS. 



179 



one interesting peculiarity of this group 

 is the yearly renewal of their large tuber- 

 culous roots, and from this fact he draws 

 the evident conclusion that the plants 

 must never be moved or disturbed dur- 

 ing their time of growth. He adds, that 

 although the plants are seemingly at 

 rest from July to March when the heads 

 appear at the surface of the soil, the pe- 

 riod of complete rest does not extend 

 beyond the month of October. Thus we 

 have defined the time during which the 

 plants may be moved without risk — 

 from July to October; though, person- 

 ally, I believe it better to undertake any 

 such change during the months of Au- 

 gust and September. Care must be taken 

 when opening the ground with a fork to 

 avoid any serious damage to the long, 

 snake-like roots,which are very brittle. 

 The plants can be stored dry for a month 

 or two, or planted in their new positions 

 at once. When replanted, the tuber and 

 its roots should be buried about 6 inches 

 below the surface of the soil, the tuber 

 itself resting upon and surrounded by 

 a little coarse sand to secure thorough 

 drainage. M. Mottet deems it best to 

 transplant the roots every autumn, but 

 I have got good results by leaving the 

 plants in the same position for two or 

 three years, the ground around their 

 roots being richly mulched with well- 

 rotted manure in early spring. It is im- 

 portant not to cover the heads them- 

 selves with this mulching, as this might 

 induce damping and decay at the neck 

 of the tuber, to its certain loss. 



There are two methods of 

 propagation : division and 

 seed. When the plants attain full vigour 



it will be found that they naturally split 

 into two or more crowns, which may be 

 carefully separated after the leaves have 

 died down in August or September. 

 Some of the species seed during fine 

 seasons, and the seed may be gathered 

 and sown ; but, unfortunately, it takes 

 some four to six years for the seedlings 

 to develop into flowering plants — yet 

 this is the only means by which the 

 many interesting hybrids now grown 

 can be raised. 



R. H. BEAMISH. 

 Ashbourne, Glounthaune, Cork. 



The Eremuri are all Asiatic plants coming 

 from the desert plains of Asia Minor, Persia, 

 Afghanistan, India, and Turkestan, where they 

 grow under peculiar conditions of soil and cli- 

 mate with a fine appearance during their brief 

 season of beauty. In his recent monograph, 

 M. Mottet describes about thirty-five species, 

 classified as follows : — 



Ammolirion Group. 

 E. altaicus, flowers yellow. 

 ,, bachtiaricus, „ „ 

 ,, Cappadocicus steiwphyllus, flowers white. 

 „ inderiensis, flowers white. 

 ,, spectabilis, ,, yellow. 

 ,, tauricus, ,, white. 



,, tui'kestanicus, ,, purple. 



Henningia Group. 



E.Albevti (Aitchisoni), flowers rose. 

 ,, albo-citrinus, flowers white and yellow. 



angustifolins, 

 , anisopterus, 

 Auchevianus, 

 aurantiactis, 

 Bucharicus, 

 Bungei, 

 Capusii, 

 Ehuesii, 

 Gviffithi, 

 himalaicus, 

 Kaitfmanni, 

 Korolkowi, 

 , luteus 

 Olgce, 

 pavviflorus, 

 robustus, 

 , Stocksii, 



SllWQVOWi, 



white, 

 white, 

 rose, 

 yellow, 

 white, 

 yellow. 

 »j 



rose, 

 white. 

 »» 



yellow. 



rose. 



yellow. 



rose. 



white. 



rose. 



white. 



yellow. 



M Z 



