1880.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
313 
The Houseleek—Umbilicus. 
Among the plants well suited to grow upon rock- 
work, are the Houseleek and other closely related 
plants. Those who are fond of odd forms of vege¬ 
tation, by planting a rock-work exclusively with 
the various species of Sempervivum or Houseleek, 
some of the Sedums, or Stone-crops, and others of 
the same family, can produce a most grotesque ef¬ 
fect. The hardy species of these plants, and there 
adopt such changes, and are apt to continue to call 
a plant by the name they first knew for it. Until 
there cau be a better agreement between botanists 
and florists, and other cultivators, we must submit 
to the inconvenience of having one set of names 
for botanical works, and another for the garden and 
garden works. To come to the plant in ques¬ 
tion, and as we speak of it as a garden plant, 
we give it its garden name, Umbilicus sempervi¬ 
vum., comes from the Eastern Caucasus. It makes 
it was found that Lilies had long been favorites 
with the Japanese gardeners, who by careful hybrid¬ 
izing and crossing had produced garden forms of 
great beauty.. In looking for the causes for the ad¬ 
vance in Lily-culture, the efforts of our own culti¬ 
vators in crossing and hybridizing must not be 
omitted ; the splendid results obtained by Hovey, 
Wilder, Parkmann, Hanson, and others, as well as 
those by European cultivators, show what a prom¬ 
ising field is still open to the patient florist. The 
the hooseleek (Umbilicus sempervivum). kramek’s lily (Lilium Krameri). 
are a great many of them, when once planted require 
bat little care. They are scarcely affected by 
drouth, and When once well established, they take 
such full possession of the ground, and cover it so 
closely, that little else can get a foothold. The 
Sempervivums present a general resemblance in form, 
to that of a rosette, but vary in size, the shape of 
the individual leaves, and especially in color. Some 
bloom quite freely, but their flowers are generally 
of a dull pink or pale purple, and are not especial¬ 
ly showy. Knowing this to be the general charac¬ 
ter of the flowers, we were surprised to see on a 
rock-work devoted to such plants in the grounds of 
Messrs. Woolson & Co., a patch of bright crimson, 
or almost scarlet. An examination showed that 
the plant was not a true Sempervivum, but a hardy 
near relative, of which we had seen accounts in Eu¬ 
ropean journals, a species of what the European 
Catalogues call Umbilicus, or Navel-wort. This one, 
from its close resemblance to the Houseleeks, is 
called U. sempervivum, the “ Houseleek Navel-wort.” 
Modem botanists do not recognize the genus Um¬ 
bilicus, but unite that and Echeveria, with Cotyledon. 
This is not the place to discuss such matters, and 
we can not explain further than to say that the best 
botanists find that the plants originally called Echeve¬ 
ria and Umbilicus are so much like those called Coty¬ 
ledon, that they see no good reason for three differ¬ 
ent names, and they place them all under the old¬ 
est name, Cotyledon. Florists are generally slow to 
small rosettes of very pale leaves, not much over 
an inch across. The second year they throw up the 
flower stem, when the plant appears as in the en¬ 
graving, which is of the natural size. There are 
several other species, some of which have white, 
and others yellow flowers ; the present species es¬ 
pecially interests us as giving a positive and rich 
color among plants, which, though striking in foli¬ 
age, are not usually very brilliant in their flowers. 
Some Notes on Lily Culture—Kramer’s Lily. 
One need not be very old to recollect the time 
when the old White Lily, the Tiger Lily, and the 
Martagon or “ Turk’s Cap,” were all the lilies to 
be seen in ordinary gardens. Now the species and 
varieties are so numerous that it would require a 
large bed to contain but a single specimen or two 
of each. While in purity of its whiteness, in fra¬ 
grance, and the grace of its typical lily form, the 
old white lily has not been, to our notion, surpassed, 
entirely new types have been introduced, and we 
now have a great variety in form and a wonderful 
range of color, including some of the most brilliant 
and some of the most delicate tints known among 
flowers. The great improvement in Lily-culture 
during the last 30 years or so is due to several 
causes, prominent among which is the opening of 
Japan to commerce. Not only were the native 
species of Japan introduced into our gardens, but 
introduction into cultivation of our native species 
from both sides of the continent, has added new 
forms and color; indeed, those who have not made 
the experiment have no idea of the great variety in 
form and, within a certain range, of color, the com¬ 
mon species of our swamps can present when 
transferred, as they well deserve to be, to the 
more favorable conditions of the garden. As with 
other plants, new introductions among lilies are for 
a while costly, but the majority, including the most 
beautiful, are sold so low as to place them within 
reach of all who can buy flowers at all. Their 
moderate cost is due to the fact that most of the 
species can be readily multiplied from the bulb- 
scales. Each of the scales of which the bulb is 
composed, will, under favorable conditions, form a 
bulb, and sometimes two or more. This method, 
now no longer a florist’s secret, will allow any one 
to multiply these beautiful plants, as it requires 
not so much skill as patience. One has only to 
carefully pull off the scales, and a few of the outer 
ones can be taken without injury to the bulb, set 
them out, just covering them in boxes of light 
sandy earth, and keep them at a uniform tempera¬ 
ture of about 50° or 60°. The earth is to be kept 
barely moist, not wet, and in about six or eight 
weeks minute bulbs will be formed at the base of 
each scale. AH the lilies, except perhaps a few 
from the mountains of India, are hardy, and many 
that were formerly considered tendw are now 
