AN AMATEUR'S ATTEMPT TO GROW LILIES ON CHALKY CLAY. 417 



flowered fairly well, and the others gave rather more flowers than the 

 previous year. (Fig. 215.) 



This, the third year, the L. miratum are most ^'igorous, the stems 

 2 inches round and 5 feet to 7 feet 6 inches high, and one has borne 

 twelve perfect flowers. All, including those planted last year, have rich 

 shiny dark green leaves, and I have not a brown leaf on any Lily except 

 where the stems or the bulbs have been injured by grubs. 



I should add that last autumn I planted a variety of Lilies in prepared 

 beds on clay banks rising at an angle of 1 in 2 feet horizontal. On the 

 face of the clay bank I put a layer of flints, then turf with the green side 

 downward, then 10 inches of pulverised clay mixed with peat and leaf 

 mould, then 10 inches of the same with sand and grit instead of the 

 pulverised clay. 



I have also planted L. aur attorn, L. a. ruhro-vittatum, L, Broicnii, 

 L. Henryi, and L. speciosum in open shrubbery borders on the fringe 

 of a wood with only leaf mould and sand dug in ; the former were eaten 

 off by snails ; the last two are very strong and healthy, but backward 

 through late planting and too much shade, but they have given much 

 finer blooms than those in the prepared beds. 



Last year, reading that Lilies prefer to have their roots cool, I sank 

 some agricultural drain-pipes (a foot long and 2 and 4 inches in diameter) 

 about 10 inches vertically, in all the Lily beds, and I have watered freely 

 through these pipes once a week this dry spring and summer, and so kept 

 their basal roots cool without wetting the bulb ; and I attribute their 

 improved healthy appearance this year to this mode of watering, and 

 hope others will give it a trial, as it saves both time and water. 



