September l2, 1903. 
The Gardening World 
GENERAL NOTICES. 
(dequatelj represented in tiie^olumns""f 3 In e^G arijen ing°World . 13 ^ ln advance 33 p03slbIe aa to dates of meetings, shows, etc. We desire to do all in our power to hare these 
fhey wUl Seby^t onl^obfige th^p^peTf but^the adverUsers ” 0118 ° r ftrmB advertl8ln S ln thifJ P a P er . to mention that their advertisement was seen in The Gardening World, 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“Who loves not Autumn’s joyous round, when corn, and wine, and oil abound T— Montgomery. 
Weekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World 
will give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for 
THE BEST PARAGRAPH, or SHORT ARTICLE, sent 
by readers during the week. The Editor’s 
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EXCEED ONE COLUMN IN LENGTH, but the Value, 
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The following- Coloured 
Plates have appeared :— 
March 14.—NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS. 
March28.— TEA ROSE “ CHAMELEON.” 
April 4.-COLEUS THYRSOIDEUS. 
April 18 —CESTRUM SMITHII. 
April 25.— JAPANESE PIGMY TREE. 
M, a y 23-—Coloured Plate of SAXIFRAGA 
GRISEBACHII and A GROUP OF ALO 
CASIAS. 
xT«« y30 -~ Ccdoured Plate of DENDROBIUM 
NOBILE ROTUNDIFLORUM and D.n. 
nobilius. 
June 6.—Monochrome plate of CALADIUMS. 
20.—Monochrome Plate of ZENOBIA 
SPECIOSA PULVERULENTA. 
aA', Colou red Plate of APHELANDRA 
aurantiaca roezlii. 
ammL 11, ~ Monochrome Plate of the 
AUSTRALIAN PITCHER PLANT. 
HP^lB^i- _Colouretl Plate of boronia 
heterophylla. 
Back numbers may be obtained from the 
publishers, price 2£d. post free. 
With the PRESENT ISSUE we present a 
Coloured Plate of SIX NEW DAFFODILS. 
Plat^T ,3^we shall give a Half-tone 
Plate of KELWAYS NEW GLADIOLI. 
Views and Reviews. 
Bulbs of the Olden Time. 
We often refer with pride to our* collec¬ 
tions of garden, plants, often speaking of 
them as il they were quite of recent intro¬ 
duction,; and continue at intervals to speak 
of the difficulties of cultivating certain 
kinds. In many cases the plants' to which 
we refer have been grown successfully in this 
country by gardeners of the olden time. We 
look upon them as old-fashioned, and smile 
at the quaint language they use when speak¬ 
ing of their favourites, but their favourites 
in many cases are ours, and wei must confess 
that in the case of hardy plants we do not 
seem to garden much more successfully in 
these days than did our forefathers. They 
give evidence of this both by their writings 
and illustrations, so that we cannot but admit 
the accuracy of their statements, as nothing 
■which they .say seems exaggerated, except 
where their knowledge may be actually at 
fault. It may be stated, however, that 
London was London then, though it was a 
very small town by comparison with its di¬ 
mensions to-day. Infinitely fewer fires were 
burning then, and comparatively little 
smoke could have contaminated the atmo¬ 
sphere, and the smoke was probably mostly 
of wood instead of coal. 
On this occasion we shall refer to some of 
the bulbs cultivated by Mr. John Gerard, who 
wrote and sent out his “ Herbal ” from his 
house in Holbom, in the suburbs of London, 
dated December 1st, 1597, or just 306 years 
ago. His own garden must, have been well 
stocked, but, ha did not limit his writings to 
his own collection, as he frequently referred 
to other enthusiastic collectors and culti¬ 
vators of his own, day. 
It is evident that several of the European 
Lilies were very extensively cultivated on 
the borders of London in those far-off times. 
The White Lily (Lilium candidum) was a 
great favourite, and is, first in order dealt 
with in his book. It seems to have been 
thoroughly well at home, even in these early 
times, for it was spoken of as the English 
White Lily, and no doubt grew in the cottage 
and villa gardens in those days just as it is 
frequently finest in the cottage gardens at 
the present day, in spite of all our supposed 
advances in the matter of cultivation. We 
suspect, the cottagers plant the bulbs and let 
them alone. Gerard also had a finer* form, 
which he termed the White Lily of Con¬ 
stantinople!, but liisi illustration, shows it to 
be the same species. 
The next he mentions is the Gold-red Lily, 
which we have no doubt was L. croeeum. It. 
seemed to vary in colour, for he figures one 
named the Red Lily, which bore as many as 
sixty flowers on well-grown plants, and was 
evidently merely a variety of L. croeeum. 
The red bulb-bearing Lily was evidently 
L. bulbiferum, a species of hardy constitu¬ 
tion, not so common at the present day as 
it ought to be in gardens. The great moun¬ 
tain Lily and the small mountain Lily were 
varieties of L. Marta.gon, which seemed to 
vary to a 'considerable extent in those days in 
the matter of colour, size of flowers, and the 
vigour of the plants. As many as four 
forms of Lilies are figured under different 
names, some of them being named the Red 
Lily of Constantinople. All of these were 
evidently L. chalcedonicum. 
The red narrow-leaved Lily, judging from 
the illustration alone, was evidently L. pom¬ 
pom urn. He also had twoi figure® of L. py- 
renaicum, under the name of the yellow 
mountain Lily and the yellow mountain 
Lily, with spotted flowers. In our experience 
the spotted form of the Pyrenean Lily is the 
most widely distributed in British gardens 
including those of the cottager, the country 
farmer, and even those of the villas on the 
outskirts of London. Gerard was at fault, 
however, in speaking of the Persian Lily, as 
he figured a, plant that was evidently a Fri- 
tillaria. We do not propose to find fault 
Avith him, as 1 several plants are sometimes 
placed under Frith lari a, and sometimes under 
Lilium. 
Hyacinths were also grown in those far- 
off times, and probably as much cherished by 
their cultivators as at any other period. We 
have on, former occasions referred to the 
Hyacinths cultivated in those early days, so 
that we need not again revert to them on 
