TEE FLORAL WORLD 



7 



bowl of well washed pebbles, filled the 

 bowl with water, and placed it in a 

 sunny window. Nearly every day the 

 water was replenished to keep it fresh 

 and at its original height. In a few 

 days thread-like roots found their way 

 into the water, and a bit of greei was 

 showing in the center of each bulb. 

 At this time the young Chinaman came 

 to the house and noticed the bulbs. 



"They doing fine. You got a sharp 

 knife?" 



I gave him a pocketknife. Taking 

 each bulb, he made six or eight per- 

 pendicular slashes about the bulb, cut- 

 ting nearly half way to the center. As 

 he replaced the last one he said: 



"A stem will come out of every cut. 

 New Year you have lots of flowers." 



"That is not possible," I replied, "for 

 it now is the 24th of December." 



He only laughed. 



January 29th was "Chinese New 

 Year." Now I knew the young man 

 referred to that time, for my lilies 

 each had six or eight bright green 

 spikes, bearing clusters of fragrant, 

 lily-shaped, waxy, white flowers, with 

 a small golden crown in the center. 

 Two of them produced double flowers. 



Having had repeated success with 

 this lily, I recommend the above 

 method of cultivating it. By planting 

 bulbs a few days apart one may have 

 the "sacred lily" in bloom all through 

 the- winter, Mrs. A. B. Mitchell,. 



Arizona. 



THE ROMAN SACRED LILY 



A few autumns ago I subscribed for 

 a floral magazine and received some 

 bulbs as a premium. Having never 

 tried bulb culture before, I closely fol- 

 lowed instructions as to soil and treat- 

 ment. Among the bulbs was a fat, 

 healthy one labeled "Roman sacred 

 lily." I assigned it to a glass pitcher 

 holding more than a quart and having 

 a hole in the bottom. After putting in 

 an inch and a half of charcoal and bits 

 of broken pottery to insure good drain- 



age, I fllled the pitcher within an inch 

 of the top with soil composed of one- 

 fourth flne sand, one-fourth black gar- 

 den soil and half coarse wood earth. 

 The bulb was then pressed in tight, 

 about an inch and a half deep. The 

 directions said, "Keep all bulbs in the 

 dark six weeks." But every time I 

 peeped into the tolerably dark closet 

 I could see tender white roots had 

 grown further and further down the 

 glass sides of the pitcher, and when 

 two weeks had passed and a green tip 

 appeared above the soil I could stand 

 it no longer, and deliberately brought 

 it out into the light (not sunlight at 

 first; indeed it never had much sun- 

 shine). It was a very thirsty plant, 

 and I gave it all the water it w^anted. 



Long, narrow, waxy leaves galore 

 grew, and the rootlets had formed a 

 white network all around the pitcher 

 and doubled and twisted and folded 

 up among the charcoal at the bottom. 

 Then two green, succulent stems shot 

 up from the mass of leaves to a height 

 of more than a foot and began to send 

 out branches clustered with flowers — 

 and such flowers, each nearly an inch 

 across, the daintiest, waxy white, with 

 golden cups, for this was a member 

 of the narcissus family. It continued 

 to send up stalks and branch and 

 bloom and flll the house with the fra- 

 grance peculiar to its kind, pouting 

 not whether assigned to the dining 

 room, parlor or sitting room, and it did 

 duty in all of these until a "norther" 

 caught us napping, and it froze. 



Some of the other bulbs rotted, for 

 all bulbs will not stand the same treat- 

 ment; others died of pure neglect, in- 

 flicted because of their tardiness to re- 

 spond to good treatment. Since that 

 time I have never had reason to 

 change or alter the opinion then 

 formed that the narcissus, especially 

 the varieties of sacred lily, are the 

 most satisfactory bulbs for amateurs, 

 and for me they yield better results 

 when grown in soil than in water. 



Texas. Louise Varxell. 



