18(35.J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
Q81 
The New Japanese Lily. 
{Lilium cmratum.) 
How much our florists 
owe to Japan; and tlie 
debt has been greatly 
increased by the gift of 
' the Gold-banded Lily, 
Lilium auratum. All 
horticulturists will re¬ 
member the excitement 
produced by the advent 
of Lilium lancifolium, 
which is now called the 
Japan Lily, though we 
have several otliers 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- 
ally, to that land of flue 
flowers and queer peo¬ 
ple. Like its beauti¬ 
ful predecessor, tliis 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 spriug 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 
high and bears from one to four or five enor¬ 
mous. flowers. The sliape of tlie leaves and 
flower is shown in the engraving, though of a 
much reduced size. Tlie flower from whicli the 
drawing was taken measured 8 inches across, 
and we have measured those which were 11 
inches across without stretching out the curved 
petals. Tlie engraving shows the lily before it 
attains its greatest expansion; then the form 
becomes more irregular, three of the petals 
standing nearly erect; below these, 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 colored 
alike, thougli there are three outer and three 
inner ones corresponding to calyx and corolla. 
The petals are beautifully undulating upon the 
edges and are gracefully recurved, the three 
outer'ones being much narrower. They are of 
a pure white, marked by dots of a rich brown; 
these dots near the end of the petal being on a 
level with its surface, but toward tlie 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 through 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 have 
a graceful curve and the general effect is hight- 
ened by the rich cinnamon-brown color of the 
pollen with which the anthers are coveredk 
Added to all this stateliness and beauty, the 
LILIUM AURATUM. 
flower has a rich and pleasing fragrance, a qual¬ 
ity so often lacking in showy 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 all the 
scaly bulbs, this lily is propagated with the 
gi’eatest ease, the scales being broken from the 
bulb and treated just like cuttings. We have 
had fine flowers this season from William Chorl- 
ton, StaJen Island ; I. Dingwall, Albany; James 
Hogg, Yorkville; 1. Buchanan, Astoria, all in 
N. Y., and from Peter Henderson, Jersey City; 
Bril! & Kumerle, Newark, New Jersey; and 
B. K. Bliss, Springfield, Mass. 
Currants, Varieties and Culture. 
People who live in the city can have nice 
currants by paying from 15 to 20 cents per 
pound, while hard, small and unripe things can 
be had at 5 cents for the 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 flowers 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 there are 
several species, the varieties of which are more 
or less cultivated. Ribes jloridum is our native 
black currant, and Ribes riigriim the European 
one, both of which have 
very unpleasant fruit 
and foliage, though val¬ 
ued medicinally ahd 
otherwise by some peo¬ 
ple. Ribes 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 indifferent 
fruits. Much 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 Ribes ru- 
h'um., 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 differing in many 
particulars from the 
parent, hence many va¬ 
rieties have been pro¬ 
duced. Our catalogues 
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 
difference 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 
case, for there 
is a difference 
in both I'ed and 
white currants, 
and we have 
very great im¬ 
provements up¬ 
on both the old 
red and wdiite 
Dutch, if not in 
flavor, at least 
in size of berry 
and bunch. We 
will enumerate 
a few of ivhat 
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. The currant will survive any 
amount of neglect, but the fruit of any of the 
Fig. 1.— VERSAILLES. 
V 
