92 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f January 31, 18?4. 
favourable to healthy growth the conditions have been to them 
during their first year in their new home the larger the propor 
tion that will succeed. No one should consider that he has 
failed with L. auratum unless he has tried sound healthy bulbs 
raised in England from English seed, or at least bulbs which 
have been grown in England after three or four years’ naturali¬ 
sation. I cannot think that borders in which L. lancifolium 
(speciosum), L. Thunbergianum, and L. tigrinum—all of them 
more difficult to please in the matter of soil than L. auratum is 
•—will not grow this latter kind well. The only suggestion I can 
make is that the soil may be too sandy, as L. auratum requires 
more moisture to do well than the others mentioned. 
I observe that L. bulbiferum is included in Mr. Sanders’ list. 
I have never yet succeeded in getting a bulb of the true L. bulbi- 
erum, a Lily bearing little bulbils in the axils of the leaves all 
up the stalks. I tbink the Lilies generally called bulbiferum 
are either L. croceum or some hybrid of it; but by whatever 
name they are called, some of these hybrids are amongst the 
handsomest ornaments of our mixed borders in the month of 
July, being admirably suited to the English climate. In some 
catalogues they are called hybrids of L. davuricum, in others 
L. umbellatum ; but there are many differences of height, habit, 
and colour, and nearly all are good. 
Two or three Lilies which do very well in my mixed beds 
thrive in a soil too stiff and retentive to grow either L. elegans 
(Thunbergianum) or L. tigrinum, but they do not refuse to 
thrive in a lighter soil. They are L. Szovitzianum (colchicum) 
and the varieties of the common L. Martagon, white, purple, and 
very dark. The first-mentioned, known also as L monadelphum, 
is a very handsome border flower, growing when established 
5 feet high or more, and making heads of from six to twelve 
citron-yellow large spotted flowers about the end of June. 
L. testaceum (excelsum) does well in the same soil, but is less 
handsome. 
Then there are two scarlet Martagons, L. chalcedonicum and 
L. pomponium, both very striking Lilies, and doing well in soil 
neither too dry nor too retentive. Care should be taken by 
arrangement with dealers to get these Lilies directly they are 
out of the soil, and favour should be made with the sellers not 
to cut off the roots. The state in which Lily bulbs generally 
come into the market makes it wonderful that they ever live at 
all, not that they take at least two years to recover themselves. 
I have said nothing about L. pardalinum, which, with the damp 
Bubsoil it has in my garden, I have never found to fail in any 
part. It is not one of the handsomest of Lilies, but ought soon 
to be one of the cheapest. L. Washingtonianum rarely does 
well in the open border in England, and L. superbum must have 
a damp soil. I think the latter at best an over-rated Lily, as it 
is always deficient in brightness of colour. L. canadense rubruin 
is a real gem amongst Lilies, and will do wherever L. longifolium 
does well. Next to it in meiut in the same species comes L. 
canadense flavum. The mixed colours of the species are neat 
and elegant; still all the L. canadense are somewhat capricious 
about soils. L. Humboldti is a fine Lily, but cannot be trusted 
to do well, and being still expensive should be tried sparingly. 
L. giganteum is more to be depended on in sheltered borders, 
and the many hundreds of thousands of home-grown seedlings 
which must now be approaching flowering size ought soon to 
bring this Lily within the reaeh of every garden. 
I think I have now mentioned most of the leading Lilies 
suited for outdoor cultivation in England. Of all the established 
Lilies I have tried I have found L. candidum and L. tigrinum 
in all its forms the least accommodating and the most difficult 
to please.—C. Wolley Dod. 
EUCHARIS AMAZONICA. 
This beautiful stove plant is without doubt the finest of the Amaryllis 
tribe. The treatment under which I have grown it and been fairly 
successful is as follows :— 
When an old pot has become too full of bulbs I shake them out, and 
divide them carefully with as little injury to the roots as possible ; after 
division they are washed free from all decayed roots and old soil. The 
bulbs are then sorted into sizes, placing the largest, eight or ten in 
number, in a pot 10 inches across, then following with about sixteen of 
the next size, the smaller being placed in pans to be grown to flowering 
size. 
The compost used in potting consists of one-half loam, one-fourth 
horse droppings from an old Mushroom bed well reduced, and one-fourth 
sand, with a good dash of charcoal dust and bone dust all being 
thoroughly incorporated The pots are well drained with a little rough 
turf on the crocks. After potting the plants are shaded until fairly 
established, they are then brought into more light; at the same time 
always avoid bright sunshine, as the foliage is very easily injured by a 
sudden glare of light. Discretion is used in watering at all times, parti¬ 
cularly so after the plants are newly potted ; for if the soil becomes 
sodden the roots very soon go off, and it then requires great care to start 
the plants. After once fairly starting weak liquid manure is given about 
twice a week, a handful of soot is also occasionally supplied. 
By having bulbs of different sizes constantly growing a succession of 
flowers is at command all through the year. If a little bottom heat is at 
command so much the better, but by careful and judicious treatment 
after potting equally good results can be obtained without it. The plants 
are grown at all times in a stove, the temperature of which is rarely more 
than 80°, or less than 60°. 
Another mode of culture where bottom heat is at command, and 
which answers exceedingly well, is to plant the bulbs out in a bed, 
using the same kind of soil for them as for potting. When once well 
established they do not need disturbing for years. Of the two ways of 
growing them I prefer the latter, as flowers of a finer quality and in 
greater numbers from a less amount of space are obtained. 
Eucharis amazonica is subject to one or two pests, the worst of which 
is mealy bug, sponging with soft soap and warm water being one of the 
simplest and best remedies. There is a smaller-flowering Eucharis i.e., 
E. Candida, which grows equally well and flowers quite as freely. The 
flowers for cutting have very few equals, and the plant deserves all the 
care and attention that can be bestowed upon it, and for market purposes 
it cannot be excelled.— William Jackson, Benton Park, Rawdon. 
[The third prize paper read at the Leeds Gardeners’ Meeting.] 
HOLLYHOCKS. 
What is there in the floral world that can take the place 
of these noble flowers? In my opinion there is nothing so 
striking and unique in appearance as they are. I am not an 
old man, but I remember at least twenty years since what a 
grand lot of them with a great variety of colour and very 
large double flowers my giandmother had in the old country 
garden where I first learnt to love hardy flowers. Some of the 
stools were many years old, but the stock was constantly 
renewed from seed selected with a discriminating eye. There 
were large clumps, between similar ones of Delphiniums and 
Monkshoods, and they towered up 7 and 8 feet high. Last 
January I visited the dear old spot and found Hollyhocks still 
a favourite flower, and from what I could gather they had, or 
did not suffer, from the disease which has caused so much 
vexation to many. Of course it was difficult to ascertain the 
exact truth respecting such an invader from those wholly 
unacquainted with the nature of such parasites, but certainly 
what growth could be seen evidently bore no traces whatever 
of the fungus, and I intend to have leaves sent me at different 
times during the ensuing season, so as to feel quite _ satisfied 
that the plants in that part of the country are not infected; 
for I have no doubt there are many quiet country gardens 
where the Hollyhock has been grown for decades in which the 
Puccinia is unknown. I always keep my plants in two or three 
places, so as to avoid, if possible, all of them becoming attacked. 
In one batch three weeks since I noticed it making progress, but 
could not detect the least sign of it on the others. The infested 
plants were taken in hand at once, all the leaves were removed, 
and about an inch of the soil scraped out of the pots, and the 
whole pot plunged in a strong solution of soft soap, with about 
double the quantity of Fir tree oil prescribed for a given quantity 
of water; the dipping was repeated for four days, and although 
the solution was strong enough to injure the plants to some 
extent, yet they are growing freely again, and I do not observe 
any of the disease and hope it is' destroyed, but am not at all 
sanguine on this point. Last year I had two batches of plants 
from different growers, one in Scotland, the other in Newcastle, 
and both senders represented the plants as quite clean and 
perfectly free from the fungus; but upon unpacking them I 
noticed the well-known spot, and although I dealt severely with 
them, I could not stamp it out, so had to destroy them. 
I think it much better to grow a fresh batch from seed every 
year, securing the seed from a reliable source to start with, and 
afterwards saving over from the best flowers, for as a rule they 
seed pretty freely. If seed is sown thinly in pans at once and 
placed in gentle heat—say the greenhouse—there will be ample 
time to get flowers from them in the autumn; at least, many, if 
not the greater portion of them will flower, and the rest next 
spring, but no time should be lost nowq and it is important to 
sow them thinly, so that they will not require disturbing before 
being planted out, which they may be after being hardened off 
in a cold frame. Encourage them, to grow as freely as possible, 
and have the ground deeply dug or trenched in which they are 
to be planted and heavily manured, for they are great feeders. 
A large space of ground need not be occupied with them the 
first year, as they may be planted thickly until they have 
flowered, when it can be judged whether they are worth keeping 
or not, after which they can be planted as isolated specimens or 
otherwise, and enjoy more scope for their development. Delphi- 
