898 JOUEXAL OT THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



LILIES. 



By J. Careington Ley, M.A. 



When the Secretary of the R.H.S. was so good as to ask me to contribute 

 a paper in connection with the coming Conference on Lilies, I was not 

 without apprehension that anything I had to say might seem too pessimistic 

 for what, let us hope, is likely to be the cheerful optimism of such a 

 meeting. I reflected, however, that while the "horrid example " is still 

 supposed to be of use in certain circles, Cassandra, by a merciful provision 

 of Nature, has never succeeded in gaining much attention, and that the 

 cakes and ale are likely to go on in spite of my virtuously becoming a total 

 abstainer from many species on which I have formerly spent money. The 

 object of such a Conference is, of course, to ascertain by comparison and 

 discussion what results may be aimed at with a fair prospect of success, 

 and achieved midcr given circumstances ; and if the result should be to 

 enable any individual gardener to permanently establish one more Lily in 

 his collection, that object will be attained. 



With the exception of some of the Indian and Burmese species. Lilies 

 pass, at any rate in the catalogues, as " hardy flowers," and it seems likely 

 that there are parts or spots in these islands where at any rate it is 

 not the degree of latitude which is the direct efficient cause of failure. 

 For this reason we are perpetually concerned with questions of soils and 

 aspects, protection and exposure ; but in the discussion of the whole 

 question of the cultivation of Lilies it may be as well to bear in mind 

 that the bulbs of more of the species than we at present recognise may 

 share the tendency of L. gigantcum and some of the species of Fritillaria^ 

 and be unable to produce more than one flower-spike — the bulbs breaking 

 up after flowering, and taking a long time, even under the favourable con- 

 ditions of their own habitats, to again grow into flowering size. 



I live myself in Mid-Kent, on the side of the central hills known as 

 the Ragstone Eange, and at a spot where they slope almost due north to 

 the banks of the Medway, which intersects them, and I have come to the 

 conclusion, after a residence here of close upon twenty-five years, that my 

 garden presents every condition that is most unfavourable to the cultiva- 

 tion of Lilies. It slopes, as I have said, due north, there are no walls 

 that give protection to any part of the flower garden, it gets the maximum 

 of the N.E. wind, of which the Eastern Counties have more than their 

 share, and the minimum of the winter and spring sun. The soil is a 

 stiff, heavy loam, which is understood to grow the best hops in Mid-Kent, 

 and which would grow excellent roses if I had a little more room and the 

 inclination to go in for exhibiting ; but it is as cold as it well can be 

 during winter and spring, while in summer it bakes into the consistency 

 of a brickbat, and I have no natural and no adequate or ready means of 

 affording moisture during the summer months. Added to this, the garden 

 is overfull, and I am disposed to think that the tendency to dwindle and 

 die out which I notice in some of my Lilies, which formerly seemed to do 



