370 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



statement it may be said that, compared with England, everything is 

 about a month earlier in this part of the Himalayas. 



A large number of my bulbs have this year (1901) given fourteen 

 flowers each, and one sixteen flowers, and a gentleman in Naini Tal who 

 took some bulbs from me reports one as producing seventeen flowers. 



The general average length of good flowers is ten inches, and they 

 are exactly trumpet- shape. 



My experience goes to show that it reaches perfection at ten years of 

 age, and from that date the bulbs begin to divide, not, however, into a 

 number of small ofl:"sets, but into nearly halves, so that a division this 

 year, say, gives two equal bulbs next year of full flowering size. 



It produces a great number of large bulbils every year ; and this year 

 I have for the first time some tw^enty very large seed-pods, each one of 

 which contains a really enormous number of seeds. For live years attempts 

 have been made to cross this magnificent Lily, and I am glad to report 

 that, out of four flowers fertilised, two at length have succeeded and are 

 developing seed-pods, and I hope in due course to get some red, or spots, 

 as a result of the cross. Alas ! it will probably take quite five years to 

 know the result. I am of opinion this noble Lily would do well in 

 sheltered places in England out of doors, but frost should under no 

 circumstances be allowed to get to the roots. My bulbs are planted deep, 

 quite five inches below the surface, as the stems make a great quantity 

 of roots every year immediately above the bulb. 



No special preparation of soil or site was given my bulbs. It, how- 

 ever, is worth recording that Himalayan comparatively new soil is a 

 naturally good Lily soil, having abundance of humus, anjl is a soil, for a 

 varying depth, of a purely vegetable character, directly derived from the 

 original forest, previously removed for the cultivation of the land. An 

 excellent point about L. sulphurcum is that it delights apparently in full 

 sun exposure. It has given abundant evidence of standing well full 

 sunshine, di'ought, and most ample rainfall by turns. The flowers are 

 delightfully scented, a very few^ scenting a very large room, and by night 

 the scent is powerfully developed ; it also lasts, cut, for a full week. The 

 large amount of very bright new coftee- coloured pollen is not the least 

 conspicuous feature of this plant. I confidently infer, so soon as stock is 

 less scarce, and L. sidphureum is better known, that it will become one 

 of the most popular Lilies in existence. 



