September  15,  1898. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
211 
Cypher.  Here  are  over  fifty  houses,  containing  a  large  assortment  of 
plants  in  the  best  condition.  The  huge  plants  of  Anthuriums,  Ixoraq 
and  Bougainvilleas  were  a  treat  to  behold,  and  left  no  surprise  at  the 
success  of  this  firm  at  the  largest  and  best  exhibitions  in  the  country. 
Of  the  many  Orchids  in  flower  I  particularly  noted  Cattleyas  aurea,  gigas, 
Gaskelliana,  maxima,  Mendeli,  and  superba  ;  Cjpripediums  Baconis, 
Crossianum,  Curtisi,  Lavvrenceanum,  and  T.  B.  Haywood  ;  Dendrobiums 
filiforme  and  formosum  giganteum  ;  Laeliacrispa  ;  Masdevallia  peristeria, 
M.  Yeitchi  erandiflora  ;  Odontoglossums  Alexandra,  crispum,  and 
hastilabium  ;  Oncidiums  concolor  and  Ivrameri  ;  with  many  others. 
On  the  route  from  here  to  Bristol,  where  I  stayed  the  night,  I  noticed 
many  extensive  allotment  gardens,  most  of  them  being  well  cropped,  and 
with  a  prospect  of  satisfactory  results,  considering  the  prolonged  drought 
which  this  year  has  undoubtedly  been  general  throughout  the  country. 
To  conclude  my  ten  days’  tour  I  left  Bristol  for  Warminster  via  Bath 
to  call  upon  Mr.  E.  H.  Smiih,  who  has  for  several  seasons  conducted, 
on  behalf  of  the  Wiltshire  County  Council,  some  invaluable  experiments 
in  respect  to  Potato  and  Onion  cultivation.  On  my  arrival  at  Warminster 
I  gathered  that  Mr.  Smith  had  secured  a  situation  in  Somersetshire,  and 
that  there  were  no  county  experiments  being  conducted  this  year.  This 
information  I  regretted  very  much,  as  I  was  anticipating  a  good  time. 
I  then  resumed  my  journey  to  the  Garden  Isle  via  Salisbury, 
Eastleigh,  and  Southampton,  feeling  amply  satisfied  with  an  outing 
which  had  been  most  interesting  and  instructive. — S.  Heaton, 
Isle  of  Wight. 
LILIES  IN  AUGUST. 
It  may  seem  presumptuous  in  one  who  has  but  a  small  garden, 
and  grows  only  one  or  two  clumps  of  each  species  or  variety  of  Lilies, 
to  write  about  them,  while  there  are  others  who  grow  them  by 
hundreds,  and  to  whom  the  loss  of  a  few  bulbs  is  of  no  account  ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  one  may  urge  that  perhaps  for  that  very  reason  he 
may  have  something  to  say  which  is  likely  to  be  useful.  I  have 
known  it  to  be  so  with  other  plants  ;  I  have  known,  for  instance,  the 
Rose  grower,  who  did  wonders  with  his  300  or  400  plants,  when 
tempted  to  launch  out  more  extensively,  never  to  have  equalled  his 
former  standard.  I  think  it  is  not  difficult  to  say  why  this  is  the 
case ;  he  is  better  enabled  to  study  the  peculiar  wants  of  his  few 
nlants,  and  to  apply  the  treatment  which  he  thinks  they  require — and 
Lilies  are  certainly  amenable,  at  loast  many  of  them,  to  such  special 
care.  Some  are  apparently  hopelessly  beyond  any  care,  do  what  we 
will,  to  satisfy  us.  Such  kinds  as  Ilumboldti  from  N.W.  America, 
and  Krsemeri  from  Japan,  I  can  never  do  anything  with,  and  I  see, 
from  the  notices  which  are  continually  appearing  in  the  gardening 
papers,  that  others  find  them  as  impossible  as  I  do  myself. 
Of  course  I  am  aware  that  there  may  be  some  situations  and  soils 
in  which  even  the  most  difficult  plants  succeed,  but  it  never  does  to 
reason  from  particulars  to  universal  (at  least,  so  logicians  tell  us),  and 
these  exceptions  only  prove  the  rule.  There  is  one  great  advantage 
in  growing  this  beautiful  tribe  of  flowers,  that  you  have  plants  of 
them  in  bloom  for  several  months,  and  I  do  not  think  that  this  is  the 
case  with  any  other  family  that  I  know ;  and  it  must  be  borne  i  r. 
mind  that  we  are  not  dependent  for  this  continuity  of  flower  on 
seminal  varieties.  The  tribe  is  widely  distributed,  and  all  parts  of 
the  world  have  contributed  their  share  for  the  adornment  of  our 
gardens.  In  the  month  of  August  there  are  few  Roses  to  gladden  our 
eyes;  I  am  speaking,  of  course,  of  the  amateurs’  and  not  of  the 
professionals’  garden,  but  during  that  month  there  are  many  beautiful 
Lilies  to  be  had. 
I  think  in  the  front  place  I  must  place  that  most  valuable  acquisi¬ 
tion,  Lilium  Henryi  (fig.  38),  which  we  have  obtained  in  the  last  few 
years  from  N.  China.  I  have  but  one  bulb  of  it,  but  it  has  done  so 
well,  and  is  now  so  beautiful,  that  I  can  safely  say  that  no  garden 
ought  to  be  without  it.  My  bulb  has  thrown  up  a  stem  nearly  7  feet 
in  height,  with  about  twenty  flower  buds;  offsets  have  also  been 
formed,  which  I  have  not  detached  from  the  parent  bulb,  and  one  of 
these  has  now  four  or  five  blooms  on  it.  The  colour  is  an  orange- 
yellow  spotted  with  crimson,  and  it  has  well  been  described  as  an 
orange  speciosum.  It  seems  to  have  taken  in  North  China  a  position 
similar  to  that  of  speciosum  in  Japan,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  it  is 
found  in  the  latter  country,  to  which  speciosum  seems  to  be  confined. 
When  the  bulb  becomes  commoner,  which  it  is  sure  to  be  before  long, 
clumps  of  it  will  be  very  beautiful  for  autumnal  bloom  in  our  gardens. 
Lilium  auratum  platyphyllum. 
I  suppose  the  experience  of  most  persons  with  regard  to  Lilium 
auratum  has  been  that  it  is  a  very  unmanageable  Lily.  Since  its 
firbt  introduction  by  Messrs.  James  Yeitch  &  Sons  millions  of  it 
have  been  imported  from  Japan  ;  it  has  found  its  way  to  all  sorts  of 
gardens,  and  yet  it  is  very  rarely  we  see  in  any  garden  a  clump  of 
either  the  type  or  its  many  varieties  more  than  a  year  or  two  old. 
The  difficulty  is  now  increased,  owing  to  the  existence  of  disease  in 
the  Lily  plantations  of  Japan,  and  if  anyone  orders  bulbs  of  them  they 
are  generally  told  they  must  wait  until  the  importation  arrives.  This 
has  been  the  case  for  years — long  before  we  had  any  notification  of 
the  disease.  Most  growers,  however,  come  to  regard  them  simply  as 
annuals;  they  buy  their  bulbs  in  the  autumn  or  early  winter,  as, 
whether  grown  in  pots  or  in  the  open,  they  do  not  calculate  upon 
seeing  them  again  after  the  first  year. 
The  introduction  of  the  variety  platyphyllum,  which  comes  to  us 
from  a  different  locality,  seems  to  promise  more  hopefully.  The 
foliage  is  more  robust  than  that  of  the  type,  as  its  specific  name 
implies,  and  the  flower  itself  has  stouter  and  broader  petals  than  the 
other  varieties,  but  I  am  beginning  to  be  doubtful  whether,  after  all, 
it  may  not  share  the  evil  propensities  of  the  ordinary  variety.  I  hope 
not,  as  it  is  a  very  beautiful  and  striking  Lily  when  in  flower. 
In  illustration  of  the  eccentricities  of  Lilium  auratum,  I  may 
mention  that  there  is  a  row  of  four  small  cottages  in  a  part' of  my 
parish ;  these  have  to  each  of  them  a  small  piece  of  front  garden 
about  the  size  of  a  tablecloth,  and  they  are  separated  from  one  another 
by  a  wooden^fence.J | One  of  these  is  inhabited  by  the  gardener  of.o 
Fia.  38.— Lilium  Henryi. 
neighbouring  house.  Some  eight  years  ago  he  planted  a  bulb  close 
to  the  fence,  and  also  to  the  pathway  leading  up  to  the  cottage; 
there  is  very  little  soil  about  it,  and  the  situation  is  excessively  hot. 
This  has  gone  on  flourishing  all  these  years  —  sometimes  coming  up 
one  side  of  the  fence,  sometimes  the  other.  This  year  it  has  produced 
several  stems,  and  a  considerable  number  of  flowers.  Why  it  should 
have  done  so  well  it  is  very  difficult  to  understand.  To  imitate  its 
surroundings  would  be  to  court  failure.  I  record  it  simply  to  show 
how  strange  the  behaviour  of  some  plants  is. 
Lilium  speciosum  and  its  Varieties. 
As  the  month  of  August  draws  to  its  close  these  beautiful  Lilies 
are  beginning  to  display  their  charms.  In  my  opinion  it  even  is  a 
more  beautiful  and  desirable  Lily  than  the  preceding  one.  Its  form  is 
exquisite,  the  colours  of  the  flowers  are  much  softer  than  those  of 
auratum,  while  the  perfume  is  incomparably  superior ;  there  is  a 
delicacy  about  it  which  makes  it  agreeable  in  a  greenhouse  or  sitting 
room,  while  even  one  flower  of  auiatum  is  too  overpowering.  There 
is  a  number  of  varieties,  and  there  is  considerable  confusion  about 
their  names.  The  fact  is  that  numbers  are  raised  from  seed  and  are 
assigned  to  rubrum  and  roseum  indiscriminately,  so  that  you  are  never 
sure  what  you  may  get  when  you  order  these.  It  is  fortunate,  however, 
that  the  variety  which  I  consider  the  very  best  of  all,  Melpomene, 
is  so  perfectly  distinct  that  it  cannot  be  confounded  with  any  other. 
It  is  said  to  be  a  seedling  raised  from  the  older  varieties  by  a  Mr. 
Hovey  of  Boston,  U.S.A.,  and  for  a  long  time  was  very  expensive, 
but  when  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  bulb  growers  they 
managed  to  so  successfully  manipulate  it  that  the  price  soon  came 
down  to  within  reasonable  limits.  The  colouring  is  very  chaste,  and 
the  plant  vigorous ;  my  clump  of  it,  consisting  originally  of  about  six 
