TIIE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
141 
A poor thin soil, a hot sandy or chalky soil, a peculiarly heavy 
and wet clay soil are not suitable for lilies. In the improve¬ 
ment of the staple for them peat and leaf-mould are capital 
agents, but well rotted stable manure is not less desirable ; in 
short, liliums are gross feeders, but a kindly mellow, well- 
drained soil of some kind is indispensable for them. It is 
commonly believed that lilies require shady aspects, but that 
is a mistake. Some amount of shade they can endure without 
injury, but the full sun is better for them if the soil is deep 
and good to afford them a sustaining root-hold. The proper 
time to plant is when the growth ceases, and the leaves die 
down. Generally speaking, the months of August, Sep¬ 
tember, and October constitute the season for planting lilies, 
and the longer they are kept out of the ground (no matter 
how carefully they may be packed), the worse will be their 
condition when planted. The fact is, all soft fleshy bulbs 
suffer by removal from the ground, and, therefore, when 
liliums are transplanted, the site they are to occupy should 
be prepared for them before they are lifted if possible, but if 
they are to be planted again on the same spot, the work should 
be done quickly, and the bulbs be, in the meanwhile, covered 
with moist soil to protect them from the destructive influence 
of the atmosphere. Generally speaking, they may all be mul¬ 
tiplied rapidly by division when the leaves die down, and on 
a pinch every scale of a bulb will make a plant if inserted 
base downwards in a mixture of sand and fine peat, and 
assisted for a time with greenhouse culture. But some of the 
sorts ripen seeds in plenty, and if the seeds are sown as soon 
as ripe in a bed or pan in a cold frame, a good stock of bulbs 
may soon be secured. Some of the kinds produce “bulbits,” 
or tiny bulbs on the flower-stems, and these, falling on the soil, 
take root, and make an increase of stock that may prove a 
perplexity to the cultivators. We have in our own garden a 
collection of about a hundred species and varieties of liliums, 
and some of the plantations are perfectly matted with young* 
brood, as if from seed sown broadcast, though all have been 
produced from bulbits cast off by the flowering plants. 
We shall select eight sorts only. I. auratum , the grandest 
of all lilies, is as hardy as the common white ; at all events, it 
has survived half a dozen winters on our cold wet soil in the 
valley of the Lea, and is quite hardy in nurseries of Messrs. 
Paul, of Cheshunt, and at the Hale Farm Nursery, Totten- 
