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LILIES or JAPAN. 
We condense from the California Horticulturist 
the following list of these popular Lilies, which are 
constantly found to be more and more desirable as 
their qualities become better known. Liliuni aura- 
tum, sometimes called Golden Lily, grows wild 
abundantly on the hillsides, stems averaging from 
three to twelve feet high, flowers numbering from 
three to one hundred and seventy-five on a single 
stem. Stem starts round at the base, and then 
spreads thin and fiat, often being six inches wide at 
the top, where it flowers. 
To preserve the bulbs in good condition, take 
them up in the fall, place in a flower-pot, and keep 
in cold place for the winter. The fragrance is like 
Mignonette, but much stronger. 
Lilium auratum pictum.—A seedling from the 
last; has a red band, instead of a-yellow, about half¬ 
way down the flower. 
Lilium rubro-vittatum.—Also from Lilium aura¬ 
tum ; flower as large, and same growth; has glossy 
red band, sometimes with spots, sometimes not. 
Lilium auratum, var. virginale.—Also a seedling 
from the same parent. Flowers pure white, with 
brilliant yellow rays and lemon-colored spots. 
Lilium black.—Flowers very dark purple with 
small yellow stamens. Grow in light, peaty mould 
mixed with a little sand. Do not let them have too 
much water or they will die. 
Lilium concolor.—Small, star-shaped flowers, light 
scarlet, with dark red spots. Two feet high. Erect 
flowers. 
Lilium coridium.—Seedling from the last flowers; 
yellow. 
Lilium cordifolium, giganteum (or Japonicum).— 
Care needed in selecting the bulbs. Plant under 
shade in a shrubbery. Does not like the sun ; grows 
well in moist, stiff soil. The bulb planted last 
spring, as soon as the flower-stem was out of the 
ground, had formed its own roots, and the bulb de¬ 
cayed altogether; and if taken up about the time of 
flowering new bulbs will be found just forming at 
the base of the stem. Flower-stems average from 
five to seven feet. Flower has four petals, and is 
very long; creamy white, with a dash of purple. 
Lilium Japonicum.—A distinct variety; foliage 
thick and stumpy; dark, glossy green flowers, trum¬ 
pet-shaped, about six inches in length, and creamy 
white, and sun-painted on the outside of a rich 
chocolate brown. 
Lilium Krameri. — A fine variety; flowers delicate 
pink, some pure white. It thrives in a light, peaty- 
soil, rots easily-. 
Lilium Lichtlinii.—One of the best varieties. 
Flower golden yellow, dotted with purple. Grows 
from three to five feet. 
Lilium longiflorum eximium.—The common long 
white trumpet-shaped Lily, two*to four feet high. 
Lilium longiflorum folius alba marginatis.—Seed¬ 
ling from the above, precisely like it, except a nar¬ 
row white border round the leal. 
Lilium Martagon.—Leaves and flowers smaller 
than any of the others. Yellow, with dark spots. 
Two to five feet. 
Lilium medeoloides.—Orange red, with dark spots. 
Requires careful treatment, as the bulb falls easily to j 
pieces. Grows in light, peaty mould. 
Lilium speciosum rubrum.—A fine, hardy Lily. 
Flowers red, with pea-green stripe, spotted with red 
and a white margin. 
Liliuni thunbergianum flore pleno.—Dwarf, hardy, 
double. Flowers fiery red, with dark spots. Early. 
About eighteen inches high. 
Lilium tliun. marmoratum.—A single variety of the 
above. Flowers deep orange-red, with tawny stains 
at tips of petals. 
Lilium tliun. tatzla.—Another of the above variety, 
a little larger in growth. Flowers light yellow 
tinged with pink. 
Lilium tliun. bemy.—Of the same family as above, 
but distinct in color and foliage. Flowers erect, 
dark chocolate. 
Lilium tliun. Alici Wilson.—A new variety of 
the above. Flowers erect, light orange. 
Lilium tigrinum flore pleno.—A double variety, 
very late. Flowers fiery red, marked with purple. 
Lilium splendens.—A single variety of the above. 
These two, like Lilium speciosum rubrum, throw out 
small bulblets in the apex of the leaf. 
CALOCHORTUS, OR MARIPOSA TULIP. 
The California Horticulturist for August has 
as its frontispiece an engraving of this handsome 
flower, which, it remarks, “ succeeds admirably in 
the garden, and deserves the attention of bulb-plaut- 
ers.” 
This tulip has been generally considered very dif¬ 
ficult of growth out of its native habitat. Even so 
high an authority as Vick's Monthly has pronounc¬ 
ed it so. Mr. Vick says that he has tried it many 
times, and has not been successful in raising perfect 
specimens ; but a correspondent of the same journal, 
E. Huztelen, writing from Le Roy, New York, gives 
a most encouraging experience, which will surprise 
those who are acquainted with the previous history 
of its culture. The plant is a native of California, 
and grows in dry and stony soil, where it is exposed 
to excessive heat; but, strange to say, the success 
noted has been attained in a climate more severe 
than that where it has very generally failed. We 
give below an extract from the letter to the maga¬ 
zine : 
“ I have a fine bed of Calochortus containing all 
the varieties in Album von Heden excepting one. 
The soil in which they grow is a coarse quicksand 
enriched with a very little swamp muck. They are 
planted six inches deep. I never disturb them nor 
cover them in winter, and they come thicker every 
year, most of them growing two feet high and going 
to seed. They are less trouble than Tulips. Plen¬ 
ty of sand, with a dry bottom and full sunshine for 
three parts of the day, seems to be all they need. I 
have also found that manure from the barnyard will 
do them harm instead of good. With the exception 
of pulling the weeds, the treatment by which I suc¬ 
ceed is to let them alone. E. Huztelen.” 
All admirers of this handsome flower will be glad, 
we are sure, to find that it can be cultivated with so 
little care as this, for it is a plant whose attractions 
well merit painstaking effort. The Album von Eeden 
is a journal published in Holland. It has lately re¬ 
ported favorably on the possibilities of success with the 
Calochortus, but we cannot but agree with Mr. Vick 
that, if the plant would prosper in that country, the 
thrifty Hollanders would have found it out long before 
this. No Holland gardener would, we feel sure, fail 
to secure any specimen of the Tulip family. 
The singular form and rare brilliancy of this blos¬ 
som should induce all lovers of the beautiful to add 
it to their collection, if possible; and as all Tulips are 
natives ol a warm climate, having been brought ori¬ 
ginally from Persia, we do not see why this, like the 
others, should not become acclimated here. 
FLOWERS IN FLORENCE, ITALY. 
Every morning at breakfast time a wiry little 
old man with twinkling black eyes came creeping up 
our staircase with a huge market-basket full of 
flowers on his arms. It makes me sigh with plea¬ 
sure now to think of those flowers. They were 
mostly wild ones, but they did not seem so to us, for 
they were of the kinds which we had been used to 
see growing in gardens, Jonquils, Lilies-of-the-Val¬ 
ley, Tulips, Narcissus, Field-Lilies, Ranunculuses, 
splendid in every shade of yellow and orange and 
deep red ; clusters of roses, torn from the walls where 
they bloom all winter long ; Ivy sprays, Lauristinas, 
Irises, Myrtle, and that oddly-tinted purple-black 
Lily which is the emblem of Florence. Later he 
brought Lilacs, fruit-blossoms, Anemones, purple, 
pink, and scarlet, long drooping boughs of Wisteria 
flowers, and the delicious little Banksia rose. All 
these delightful creatures would he pour out on the 
table, and then would begin the most comical pro¬ 
cess of bargaining! The old man would name a 
price. We would name a price. The old man 
would shriek, shrug, dance about, and protest that 
to abate in the least from his price would be equiva¬ 
lent to condemning his wife, children, and aged 
parents to penury. Then Maria, our maid, would 
emerge from the kitchen and join the fray, snapping 
her fingers and crying, “ Che! Che ! ” declaring that 
never was there such a wicked old man, the worst in 
all Florence, a thief, a veritable robber; never should 
her ladies pay such unheard-of sums for a few miser¬ 
able flowers—it was picking their pockets ; Gia! 
(jia! go along with you. Then suddenly in the 
midst of a storm a lull would ensue. The old man 
would change his expression, become all smiles, push 
the flowers he had chosen towards us with his lean 
forefinger, seize the sum he had so decried, bow, 
and vanish, leaving 11 s with the lovely heap of glad, 
sweet-swelling things and the comfortable sense that 
we had made a huon murcato. But alas! there 
would be the giantess down upon 11 s, upbraiding us 
for always giving iniquitous people their own way ; 
and always there was a glint in the old man’s eye,' a 
suppressed frisk and joyfulness, as he turned away, 
which convinced us that, however little we might 
have paid, the “ bargain ” was on the other side, and, 
as usual, we had been “done in the transaction.”— 
Sunday A fternoon. 
