1865.J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
S81 
The New Japanese Lily. 
(Lili'um auraium.) 
How much our florists 
owe to Jap;m ; ami the 
debt has been greatly 
increased by the gift of 
the Gold-banded Lily, 
Liliiun auratum. All 
horticulturists will re- 
member the excitement 
produced by tlie advent 
of Liliuin lancifolium, 
which is now called the 
Japan Lilj', though we 
have several others from 
that country. The one 
under consideration is 
likely to become quite as 
popular, and the two 
together are enough to 
put us under everlasting 
obligations, horticultur- 
all}', to that laud of fine 
flowers and queer peo- 
ple. Like its beauti- 
ful predecessor, this lily 
was for a while held at 
a price which kept it 
beyond the reach of or- 
dinary cultivators, |40 a 
bulb having been asked 
for it when first intro- 
duced. Last spring, the 
price was |5, and as it 
can be rapidly multi- 
plied, we have no doubt 
that next spring it will 
be sold at a great reduc- 
tion from this, We have 
only seen the plant in 
pot-culture where it is of course somewhat 
drawn up and bears fewer flowers than it will 
in the open ground. It grows two feet or more 
liigh and bears from one to four or five enor- 
mous flowers. The shape of the leaves and 
flower is shown in the engraving, though of a 
much reduced size. Tlie flower from which the 
drawing was taken measured 8 Indies across, 
and we have measured those which were 11 
inches across without stretching out the curved 
petals. The engraving shows tlie lily before it 
attains its greatest expansion ; then the form 
becomes more irregular, three of the petals 
standing nearly erect; below tliese, two are 
stretched out horizontally, while the other one 
hangs directly down in front. We call all the 
parts petals, as in the lilies they are coliu'ed 
alike, though there are three outer and three 
inner ones corresponding to caly.v and corolla. 
The petals are beautifully undulating upon the 
edges and are gracefully recurved, the three 
outer ones being ranch narrower. They are of 
a pure white, marked by dots of a rich brown ; 
these dots near tlie end of the petal being on a 
level with its surface, but toward llie middle 
they become elevated, and near the base they 
form short coarse hairs. But the most promi- 
nent marking of the flower is the broad central 
stripe of clear yellow, running tlirough the 
length of each petal, which in the sun give it a 
brilliancy that well merits the name of Gilded 
or Gold-banded. The stamens and pistil liavc 
a graceful curve and the general etTect is liight- 
ened liy the rich cinnamon-brown color of the 
pollen with which the anthers are covered. 
Added to all this stateliness and beauty, the 
LILIUM AURATUM. 
flower has a rich and pleasing fragrance, a qual- 
ity so often lacking in sliowy flowers. We have 
no doubt that, like the older favorite above men- 
tioned, this will prove perfectly hardy and we 
shall soon see it in every garden. Like nil the 
scaly bulbs, this lily is propagated witli the 
greatest ease, the scales being broken from the 
bulb and treated just like cuttings. We have 
had fine flowers tliis season from William Chorl- 
tou, Staton Island ; I. Dingwall, Albany ; James 
Hogg, YorkviUe ; I. Buchanan, Astoria, all in 
N. Y., and from Peter Henderson, Jersey City ; 
Brill & Kumerle, Newark, New Jersey; and 
B. K. Bliss, Springfield, Mass. 
Currants, Varieties and Giiltiu'e. 
People who live in tlie city can have nice 
currants by paying from 1.5 to 30 cents per 
pound, while hard, small and unripe things can 
be had at 5 cents for tlie same quantity. Those 
who live in the country can have the very best 
as long as the season lasts, by a little expense 
in getting a start, and a little trouble thereafter. 
A most wholesome fruit is the currant, and its 
sharp acid is very grateful in the hot days in 
which it comes. The currant belongs to the 
genus Bibes, ■which furnishes us both the 
Gooseberry and Currant. Gooseberries have 
prickly stems and their fliiwers and fruit in 
small clusters, while currants have stems with- 
out prickles, and their flowers and fruit in long 
racemes, or strings. Of the currants lliere are 
several species, (he varieties of which are more 
or less cultivated. Bibes floriduni is our native 
black currant, and Bibes ni{jrum the European 
one, both of which have 
very unpleasant fruit 
and foliage, though val- 
ued medicinally and 
otherwise by some peo- 
ple. Bibes aureum is the 
Buffalo, or Missouri cur- 
rant, often cultivated in 
gardens as an ornament- 
al shrub, for its early 
sweet-scented flowers. 
Its varieties, the Mis- 
souri sweet-fruited and 
the Utah currant have 
mawkish and indifierent 
fruits. JIuch has been 
written about the Utah 
currant, of which there 
are black, yellow and 
red kinds, and all equal- 
ly worthless here, al- 
though they may have 
a value in Utah. It is 
to the species Bibes ru- 
brum, that we are in- 
debted for all the valu- 
able garden varieties, 
red, white, striped, etc., 
but for our purpose 
we may consider only 
the red and the white. 
Like all our cultivated 
fruits, the seeds give 
plants dilTeriug in many 
particulars from the 
parent, hence many va- 
rieties have been pro- 
duced. Our catalogue* 
contain so long a list of 
names, that one is puz- 
zled what to choose, and 
the beginner will be pleased to know that the 
diff'erence between them is much greater in print 
than in the plants themselves, and that a list of 
five will comprise all that are really desirable. 
The scope of the variation is so small, that one 
in going over a collection of 20 varieties will al- 
most be tempt- 
ed to say that 
there are only 
two sorts of 
currants, red 
and white. Yet 
this is not the 
ca^p, for there 
is a difference 
in both red and 
white currants, 
and we have 
very great im- 
provements up- 
on both the old 
red and white 
Dutch, if not in 
flavor, at least 
in size of berry 
and bunch. We 
will enumerate 
a few of what 
seem to us the leading varieties, and leave our 
readers to make a choice among them— remark- 
ing that our notes refer to varieties under good 
culture. The best varieties, if neglected, will 
produce but poor fruit, while the common sorts, 
properly cultivated and pruned, will give a 
satisfactory yield. Tlie currant will survive any 
amount of neglect, but the fruit of any of the 
Fig. 1.— VERSAIIXES. 
