798 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 27, 
; Ruralisms 
J w ' W ▼ ▼ V y V V * 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
Lilies from Seed. —The propagation of 
lilies from seed is a most interesting but 
sometimes a rather long-drawn-out occu¬ 
pation. The main difficulty is to get the 
seeds, as many of the choicest species sel¬ 
dom perfect seeds under cultivation, and 
they are rarely procurable in commerce. 
Old established bulbs or clumps of exotic 
kinds sometimes seed when least expect¬ 
ed, and seeds of native kinds can usually 
be collected in the proper season. Cross- 
pollinization appears to favor seed pro¬ 
duction, but seldom affects the character 
of the offspring when growm. Seedling 
lilies are supposed to be more vigorous 
and longer-lived than those increased by 
scales or divisions. There is always de¬ 
mand for- good home-grown bulbs, as im¬ 
ported ones generally fail to give satis¬ 
faction. When they can be raised in the 
natural way from seeds they are even 
more desirable. The following kinds ap¬ 
pear most promising for the work: 
Liuum Tenuifolium, Siberian Coral 
lily. This is a small species with narrow 
foliage, seldom growing more than two 
feet high, but with very light scarlet flow¬ 
ers, one of the gayest in color of the en¬ 
tire genus. It seeds with considerable 
freedom, and flowering bulbs may usually 
be grown in two or three years after sow¬ 
ing. The bulbs are small and not lasting, 
but may be had at moderate prices, as 
they are grown in quantity on Long 
Island. A capsule of seeds, pollinized 
with Lilium Grayi, planted two years ago 
in a nine-inch pot of light, peaty soil, has 
just turned out 40 handsome bulbs, prob¬ 
ably strong enough to bloom next Sum¬ 
mer. 
Lilium Humboldti is one of the few 
California species succeeding well in the 
East. It likes a deep, well-drained soil, 
and is not averse to partial shade. It 
grows three or four feet high, and bears 
large orange-red blooms, thickly spotted 
with purple. It is freely collected in Cal¬ 
ifornia, but eastern-grown bulbs from 
seeds would be very desirable. Seeds 
pollenizcd with L. tenuifolium germinat¬ 
ed within 90 days, and have given us, at 
the end of a year, solid bulbs as large as 
a hazelnut. It will probably require two 
or more years more time to grow them to 
blooming size. This species is also known 
as Lilium puberulum. 
Lilium Pardalinum, popularly known 
as Leopard lily, is a common and easily 
cultivated California species, reddish 
orange in color but strikingly marked with 
large purple-brown spots near the center. 
It is a good seeder and forms the basis 
of the astounding “hybrids” priced by 
Luther Burbank in one of his earlier cat¬ 
alogues at $250,000 for the collection. 
Burbank claimed that nearly 40 of the 
world’s rarest species entered into the 
make-up of these hybrid seedlings. So 
far as they have reached the public they 
appear to be indifferent crosses of Par¬ 
dalinum with the nearly related L. Hum¬ 
boldti, just described. Other hybrids of 
Pardalinum with L. Parryi, a fine yellow 
Pacific Coast lily, and L. Washington- 
ianum, white, tinged with purple or pink, 
also native to California, are said to be 
very good, but those most familiar with 
Burbank’s seedling lilies assert that no 
trace of the influence of Asiatic or other 
exotic species is discernible among them, 
though he doubtless used pollen from the 
choicest varieties of every procurable 
type. Pardalinum and Humboldti have 
also been hybridized in Europe with very- 
pleasing results. Our own attempts to 
breed Pardalinum with tenuifolium and 
such native eastern kinds as Philadelphi- 
cum, Grayi and Superbum have not yet 
passed beyond the seed stage. 
Lilium Hansoni or maculatum, from 
Japan, bears a splendid truss of a dozen 
or more clear orange blooms, dotted with 
purple, of moderate size, but thick and 
waxy texture. It is one of the thriftiest 
and most lasting of lilies and appears to 
be hardy everywhere. Some beautiful 
hybrids between it and white-flowered 
forms of the European Turk’s-cap lily, 
L. Martagon, have been raised in Hol¬ 
land. They are offered under the gen¬ 
eral term of “Marhan” lilies. Miss Ellen 
Wilmott is probably the finest variety, 
exceedingly vigorous in growth, bearing 
large and showy spikes of clear nankeen 
yellow blooms, with fine purple spots. A 
plant of this superb hybrid has given us 
a fine crop of seeds one year after plant¬ 
ing. 
Lilium Speciosum, formerly lancifol- 
ium, the fragrant pink Japan lily, is com¬ 
monly grown and highly appreciated in 
this country. Well-established clumps 
often set seed with considerable freedom, 
but it is so slow in ripening that frost is 
likely to destroy it. If the capsules arc 
thickly wrapped with paper at night they 
may be safely carried through quite sharp 
freezes, while the stems may be cut after 
the leaves turn yellow and placed in 
water in a sunny window for the seeds 
to ripen. Blooming bulbs may be grown 
in three or four years from planting if 
the seed is of good quality. We have 
flowered a number of seedlings from var¬ 
ious forms of Speciosum, pollinated with 
Lilium auratum, the great gold-banded 
Japan lily, the yellow L. Henryi and na¬ 
tive species such as L. superbum, L. Can- 
adense and L. Carolinium.. They are 
large in flower and clear and brilliant in 
coloring, but show little departure from 
the typical varieties of Speciosum. This 
species has been many times hybridized 
with Auratum, but no great departure has 
yet been gained. Francis Parkman, the 
historian, pollenized Speciosum with the 
first bloom of Auratum ever exhibited in 
New York, and raised a large, deeply- 
colored Speciosum afterwards named 
Melpomene. It was said to be very hand¬ 
some and quite distinct. Efforts to pro¬ 
pagate by bulb scales were not particu¬ 
larly successful, and it soon disappeared 
from cultivation, though the name is 
still retained in seedsmen’s catalogues, and 
deep-red or purplish Speciosums supplied 
when it is called for. 
The Bermuda or Easter Lily, often 
known as Lilium Harrisii, is considered 
to be only an early blooming garden form 
of the Asiatic Lilium longiflorum. It is 
almost exclusively propagated by scales, 
and stocks have consequently become 
much diseased. The Department of 
Agriculture at Washington, D. C., has 
grown this valuable lily to flowering size 
from seeds in 18 months, but, of course, 
only under semi-tropical greenhouse con¬ 
ditions. It is thought that bulbs may be 
economically grown from seeds in some 
of the warmer parts of the United States, 
such as Florida and southern California. 
We have hybridized the Easter lily with 
the rare and dainty Philippine trumpet 
lily, L. Phillipense, here on the Rural 
Grounds, but this cro'Ss has also been 
made at Washington, and doubtless by 
plant breeders in other countries. 
The Common Eastern Lilies, L. Cana- 
dense, L. PhiladelphiCum and the magnifi¬ 
cent L. superbum, which grows by the 
thousand in our Jersey swamps, seed 
plentifully when naturalized in the gar¬ 
den as well as in their woodland habi¬ 
tats. They do not respond readily to 
cross-pollenization, and the seeds seldom 
germinate until the second year. The 
seedling bulbs grow very slowly. We 
have them four years old scarcely half 
an inch across and of course showing no 
blooms. Genuine hybrids of these and 
other native species would be of great 
interest if they ever materialize. 
Lilium Henryi, the new Chinese yel¬ 
low lily, proves an agreeable surprise in 
its capacity for ready growth from seed. 
Two capsules, one pollinated with Spe¬ 
ciosum and the other with Superbum, 
were secured in the Fall of 1904. The 
seeds were many and plump. They were 
sown in October in nine-inch pots of light 
peaty soil, and kept fairly moist in an 
outhouse, subject to moderate freezing, 
until February, when they were placed 
near the glass in a greenhouse. Sprouts 
came up in three weeks, and by early 
Summer the pots were filled with a dense 
growth of young foliage. They were kept 
outside In partial shade throughout the 
warm season and again transferred to 
the glasshouse, as there appeared no dis¬ 
position to cease growth, when cold 
weather approached. The crowde 1 plants 
threw up tall stems the past Summer, 18 
months after sowing, and no less than 1J 
produced good-sized blooms, the strongest 
one opening six. These flowers were 
characteristic Henryi blooms, rich bright 
yellow in color with the usual beautifully- 
sculptured interior, showing no influence 
of the foreign pollen, with one excep¬ 
tion, where the tint was pale, cream)' buff. 
We have just planted these bulbs out in 
a permanent be3, and found 114 in the 
two pots, varying in size from a hazelnut 
to that of a large walnut. They were 
tightly wedged together in layers four 
inches deep in the pots. Experience 
seems to show that seedling lilies thrive 
better when crowded during their early 
growtTi, and they should not be dis¬ 
turbed until firm bulbs, large enough to 
plant out are formed. Lilium Henryi 
is a grand acquisition. One of our im¬ 
ported bulbs, three years planted, bore 49 
perfect blooms this season and is ripen¬ 
ing a dozen capsules of seed. The 
flowers are not of the largest size, But 
are bright and well formed, while tlie 
plant grows six to eight feet high under 
ordinary garden conditions. A very 
striking hybrid was raised some^ years 
ago at Kew Botanical Gardens, Condon, 
'between Henryi and the rare Lilium 
Browni leucanthemum, also from China. 
The latter lias large trumpet-shaped, 
creamy white flowers. The hybrid bore 
large widely-opened blooms, pale buff in 
color. It was very beautiful, but must 
have been of weak constitution, as it is 
said to be already lost to cultivation. 
Hybrid Lilies.— Probably more earnest 
effort has been expended on the hybridi¬ 
zation of lilies than any other race of 
plants except orchids, but the results are 
singularly meager. About all the good 
authenticated hybrids are mentioned in 
this paper. A few garden varieties are 
considered as hybrids because they have 
never been found growing in a state of 
nature, but nothing is actually known of 
their origin. The paucity of results is 
explained on the theory that lilies, with 
rare exceptions, really do not hybridize 
in the true sense of the word. The seed 
cells in the ovary respond to the stimulus 
of foreign pollen, and produce seeds by a 
kind of bud development, not unknown in 
other plants, but there is no vital union 
with the pollen cells, and the result, in 
the overwhelming majority of instances, 
is the reproduction of the female or seed¬ 
bearing plant. Our personal experience 
confirms the general impression that no 
matter what foreign pollen may be applied 
to a lily bloom after excluding its own, 
the seeds produced are likely to develop 
into a plant essentially like the mother. 
__ w. v. F. 
“And best of all,” said the boastful 
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—Judge. 
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