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LXXXVI. Notice relative to the Flowering of Lilium Japo- 

 nicum. In a Letter to the Secretary. By Mr. Samuel 

 Brookes, F.L.S.$H.S. 



Read August 7th, 1821. 



Dear Sir, 



I herewith send you my best specimen remaining of Lilium 

 Japonicum, which, I am sorry to say, has suffered much from 

 the wind and rain since you saw it ; if the plant had not been 

 in such an exposed situation, the colour of the flower would 

 have been pure white, with a broad streak of purple on the 

 midrib of the external petals,* with which character it bloomed 

 last year with me, in great beauty, though not in such vigour 

 as at present. The bulb which produced the present flower- 

 stem was planted in the spring of 1820, in a brick pit, used 

 for the growth of Moutans, and at that time it was about the 

 size of a small Nonpareil Apple, being indiscriminately 

 taken from a large number imported the year before from 

 China, by myself and my late partner, in the Lady Mel- 

 ville, Indiaman. The height of the flowering stems, of 

 which it threw up five, was full five feet ; four of the stems 

 have produced three flowers on each, as large as those now 

 sent, in which the length of the petals is about six inches, 

 and the expansion of the flower about seven inches ; the re- 



* A drawing of the specimen sent by Mr. Brookes has been made for the col- 

 lection of the Society by Miss Cotton. 



