LILIUM SULPHUREUM, BAKER. 



869 



LILIl M SULPHUREUM, BAKEE. 



Bot. Mag. Tab. 7257. 



By F. W. Seers, Naini Tal, N.W.P., India. 



This truly noble Lilium is indigenous to the Southern Shan States of 

 Upper Burma, and is found in the jungles round about Taungyi. It has 

 proved itself a species of great adaptability, since, under cultivation, my 

 bulbs have constantly progressed and far exceed anything in a state of 

 nature that has ever come to my knowledge, even indirectly ; moreover, it 

 stands with absolute impunity a full Himalayan exposure at an elevation 

 of nearly 7000 feet. All seasons are borne with equal facility, and this 

 fact says a great deal more than the mere words would convey to an 

 European cultivator unacquainted with the Himalayan climate. April, 

 May, and half June is a period of hot sunshine as a rule, and a dry heat, 

 accompanied at intervals in most years with more or le^s violent storms. 

 This year, however, the monsoon failed to reach my district until July 9, 

 or nearly a month late. The heat was phenomenal, and the dryness great, 

 and this state of things, while seriously damaging a number of Japanese 

 Liliums, appears not to have affected L. siiljjlnireinn at all. 



The general height of about ten-year-old bulbs is six feet, circum- 

 ference of stems at base five inches, leaves about seven inches to five 

 inches long by a quarter inch wide, studded all over the stem at about 

 half inch apart mostly irregular alternate. The fohage of this Lily is very 

 good and lasts far into the autumn, and the stems remain clothed from 

 base to summit for a lengthened period. 



The stems are very strong, and, notwithstanding the great weight of 

 the flowers, I have never had to stake this particular variety. 



The name S2ilphureiim is a very good one, as the rich sulphur throat 

 is conspicuous, but it must not be assumed by those who do not know the 

 Lily that sulphur is the prevailing colour : in other words, that it is a 

 sulphur type of yellow Lily ; this would be wholly inaccurate. The sulphur 

 is exclusively confined to the throat of the flower, and the reflexing 

 portion of the segments turns a rich creamish- white, while the outside is 

 neither white nor yellow, but a blend of somewhat vinous pink or pale 

 purple mixed with a greenish tinge, and seen from a distance the very long 

 large buds in a mass give the impression of a dull subdued pink flower. 



The three inner segments of the flower have a pronounced prominent 

 rib along the centre outside, but this characteristic is wholly lacking 

 in the three outer segments of the flower. All the segments are 

 characterised by massiveness similar to the petals of Magnolia grandiflora 

 and it has stood almost with impunity the heavy rains of the Himalayas, 

 amounting sometimes to six inches at a time, whereas this much rain 

 has simply ruined any opened flowers of nearly all kinds of Japanese 

 Liliums in my possession. 



It commences to flower heie the first week in Julv, but as a broad 



