ON THE CULTURE OF LItIUM. 
207 
person may enjoy a bed of lilies for several months, which 
cannot be the case with tulips. The plan which I should 
propose for those who wish to grow liliums to perfection is this : 
A bed should be formed, proportioned to the number that the 
grower has got to plant. The common soil should be taken out 
to the depth of three feet ; and it should be filled up with the 
following compost : two barrow-loads of turfy loam from a 
pasture field, with an equal portion of turfy peat; to these, add 
one barrow-load of leaf soil, and also an equal portion of sharp 
sand, with one barrow-load of well-rotted manure, and so on in 
proportion, till such time as you have got as much together as 
will fill the bed. Let all this be thrown up into a heap for a year 
before it is wanted, and frequently turned in the course of that 
time. If the bottom is wet, it would be well to fill up the bed 
one foot with broken stone, and to lay upon that turf, with the 
grassy side upwards, as it will not root so soon as if it was turned 
downwards. Over this should be laid six inches of well-rotted 
manure. With a dry bottom, it will require no stone, but only 
laying the manure at the bottom of the bed. The bed should 
then be filled up to about two feet and a-half with the compost 
before mentioned. After it is filled in, it should remain 
for about a fortnight before it is planted ; so that the soil may get 
well settled down. The roots should be planted as early in 
January as the weather will admit. The planting of them should 
commence with the tallest towards the top of the bed, and so on 
till you reach the bottom of the bed with the lowest species. 
The crowns should be six inches below the surface when planted. 
When finished planting, the bed should be heaped over and 
covered with mats every night, and every day that is frosty ; but 
every fine day the mats should be taken off, and even when 
raining, as the rain will do them no harm, but good. The mats 
should be put on as long as there is any appearance of frost.—I 
should have said, that, when planting, it would be necessary to 
put a little sand around and also over the tops of the bulbs, 
the same as is done with tulips. It will also be necessary to have 
a covering for the bed, so that the plants when in flower may 
be protected from heavy rains and cold cutting winds ; and also, to 
protect the late flowering ones, it will be proper to proportion the 
distance to the size that the plants grow to when planting, for 
some of the species will require a foot in the row, and a foot 
