170 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
WHITE LILIES. ( Caiididum . ) 
HE fairest and sweetest of 
all the flowers, these are 
yet among the hardiest. 
llotanists tell us Imw 
deep in the soil all lily 
bulbs are buried in their 
natural habitat. This is 
for two reasons ; many 
kinds are native to the hot 
localities and the torrid zone where the earth is 
burning and scorching for some depth below the 
surface, so the bulbs are cool, deep, down in the 
strata where moisture exists; equally as many kinds 
are native to cold climates and are protected from 
freezing by the depth of soil. Wc learn from this, 
that lilies may be safely grown in northern and 
southern climates. The same varieties are beautiful, 
hardy and free alike in all climates. 
Lilium caiididuin is the oldest and best known 
of all the class. I need no apology for placing it 
first on the list. Its antiquity, its purity, beauty 
and exquisite sweetness have given it a place in 
legendary lore, sacred annals, in pictures and 
sculpture; and it is dedicated to saints and to the 
Virgin Mary. 
“Annunciation” and “Madonna” are the names 
long ago conferred upon L. cundiduin, and by these 
churchly names it is known in the floral trade. Al- 
though much used in a symbolic sense on sacred oc- 
casions, as shown in the pictures of the Annuncia- 
tion where the old painters represent the angel Ga- 
briel extending white lilies to the Virgin Mary, and 
vases of them by her side; and that it is dedicated 
to more saints and used on more Saint’s Days than 
any other flower, yet the most substantial proof of 
its popularity is in its very general culture. All 
gardens where sweet flowers grow must have white 
lilies, else there is a deficiency. 
It is somewhat singular that the native home of 
L. candidum is not known. It has been claimed 
as one of our native flowers, but this is not proven. 
It came across the waters from the “Old Country’’ 
with our flower loving ancestry and was planted upon 
home-sites that fell into wildness and neglect, as 
many inevitably did; those coming afterward to 
clear up and reestablish the home and home-garden, 
when flowers so fair and beautiful burst into unex- 
pected bloom, supposed them to have been the 
fruitful natural offering of the soil. The most de- 
cisive evidence of its native habitat comes from the 
Revue Horticale which published in 1883 a state- 
ment from Father Lazariste, of the College of 
Autara at Lebanon, to the following effect: “Our 
Lebanon mountains are filled with Lilium catidi- 
in several places. It is. certain nobody has 
planted them there, for they grow in the wildest 
places where no one has set foot but goat herders. 
I claim the mountain recesses of Lebanon to be the 
native home of the Madonna Lily. I have had the 
peasants bring them to me, of as fine quality as 1 
ever saw in France or Rome. 
Although a very delicate flower in appearance, 
L. candidum is in reality one of the hardiest of 
bulbs. All countries seem to suit it and the cold 
of the winters far north have no deleterious effects 
upon it; neither the prolonged, dry summers of 
southern sections. 
The cultural directions are simple, but though 
pliant on the whole. 3-etin certain things the wants 
of the flower must be complied uith. In the first 
place we refer to out-door planting. In cemeter- 
ies, parks or private gardens, the lily bed or bor- 
der is ever beautiful, long lived and reproductive, 
the lilies in the open, become more abundant and 
beautiful as the 3cars goby; make the bed rich and 
warm and deep. Old, decayed barnyard fertilizers, 
mellow garden compost, leaf mold and always sand, 
intermixed and if necessary, bone dust, or an3" pre- 
ferred commercial fertilizer, will make a lily bed, 
bwt by no means use fresh grass, qr heating com- 
post. Lilies do not thrive in such soil. They all 
as a class, prefer old mellow fertilizers and without 
an exception must be planted deep in the soil. 
Never less than one foot, but better two, and strong 
bulbs will push the bloom stalk up from a still 
greater depth. September or October, is late 
enough, and some gardeners bed lilies in Augurt. 
The bulbs begin to grow almost immediately. The 
green leaves are waxy and tender in appearance 
but there is a peculiar “strength in weakness” as 
applied to the Madonna Lily. The bulbs that send 
up the crown of leaves are the ones sure to bloom. 
Small sized bulbs make straggling leaves and a 
practiced eye can tell at a glance, which will bloom 
the first year. Let them grow together, however, 
and in another year the weak bulbs will have gained 
strength sufficient to bloom grandly. Planted in 
August, September or October these lilies will 
bloom in May in the South, in June in the North. 
They do much better left for years where they are 
and all the extra care they need is to have the 
bloom stalks and foliage cut away when turned yel- 
low and a mulch put over the bed. The mulch may, 
with advantage, be also applied over the bed, up 
and around the new growth, early in the fall. Some- 
what shaded, but with several hours of sunshine 
upon it each day, the lily bed should be; amd the 
soil should be well drained. 
White lilies constitute the chief crown of beauty 
in every garden of bloom. No position is too con- 
spicuous, and nothing is more attractive in parks 
