304 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER . 
April  11,  1901. 
superphosphate,  but  not  with  lime  or  basic  slag,  in  which  case  sulphate 
of  lime  (gypsum)  and  free  ammonia  are  formed,  the  latter,  of  course, 
going  off  into  the  air.  These  rules  apply,  of  course,  just  as  much  to 
sowing  the  manures  together  as  to  mixing  them  before  sowing. 
— A.  Petts. 
- - <♦©♦► - 
Liliums. 
Those  who  have  succeeded  in  blooming  the  canadense  tribe  out  of 
doors  were  doubtless  charmed  with  them.  They  are,  indeed,  elegant 
flowers ;  alas  1  the  second  year  mine  failed,  and  I  have  not  again  tried 
them.  Roezli  and  rubellum  I  have  tried  in  pots.  The  bulbs  were 
small  ;  the  former  gave  me  leaves,  the  latter  a  single  lovely  bloomy 
but  in  the  autumn,  when  I  thought  to  repot  them,  they — the 
bulbs — were  gone,  leaving  very  faint  traces.  Harrisi,  in  the  open,  has 
gone  the  way  of  many  Liliums  ;  they  have  turned  up  “  blank.”  I 
have,  however,  some  bulbs  in  a  pot  which  last  spring  never  showed  up 
at  all,  so  I  gradually  took  off  the  top  soil,  expecting  to  find  the  bulb 
decayed.  However,  to  all  appearance  there  were  several  good  bulbs} 
so  I  covered  up  and  hoped.  Still  no  sign,  so  last  autumn  I  again 
uncovered  very  carefully,  to  find  the  bulbs  apparently  sound  and 
healthy,  so  I  put  fresh  top-dressing  ;  but  hitherto  there  is  no  result 
Query — Should  these  be  turned  out  of  their  pots  yearly,  the  smaller 
bulbs  removed  and  the  others  replanted  ?  1  happened  to  go  into  a 
nurseryman’s  place  once  and  found  the  foreman  engaged  in  this  occupa¬ 
tion,  and  he  wa>  potting  bulbs  in  full  confidence  of  bloom.  I  wonder  if 
they  did  ?  Another  thought  occurs  to  me.  Does  a  bulb  occasionally 
take  a  \  ear’s  holiday,  and  go  on  all  right  the  following  year  ?  I  have 
no  absolute  proof  of  this,  but  I  fancy  they  may  do  so.  In  the  starting 
time  of  Lilies  outdoor  I  think  there  is  every  need  of  very  careful 
manipulation  in  their  vicinity.  I  recollect  once  searching  for 
a  bulb  in  the  spring,  and  my  factotum  went  roughly  to  work,  took  off 
a  scale  or  two  of  the  bulb,  and  damaged  the  shoot  slightly,  which  was 
some  2  inches  high.  That  bulb  struck  work,  and  never  showed  up 
again  ! 
In  greenhouse  culture  of  the  speciosum  and  auratum  groups,  last 
year’s  experience  makes  me  ask,  Do  we  in  pots  give  them  room  enough  ? 
I  as'k  this  because  I  have  one  warm  summer  planted  nepalense  out  of 
doors  and  the  bulbs  bloomed  and  seemed  to  increase  in  size.  Then  again, 
if  auratum  is  planted  out  in  a  favourable  situation,  it  will  often  do 
well  for  several  years,  whereas  in  6  or  7-inch  pots  they  often 
disappear.  Last  year  I  grew  several  of  the  auratum  type  in  8  or 
9-inch  pots,  one  bulb  in  a  pot ;  the  bulbs  were  certainly  smaller  this 
past  autumn,  but  anyway,  macranthum,  pictum,  and  rubro-vittatum 
are  now  showing  very  respectable  shoots,  which  look  quite  large 
enough  for  some  flowers.  Some  are  throwing  up  two  shoots.  I  never 
desire  this.  The  largest  bulb  of  that  peerless  Lily,  nepalense,  sent 
me  last  year  by  Messrs.  Wallace,  the  best  looking  bulb  of  that  sort  I 
have  ever  seen,  sent  me  up  two  shoots,  and  though  apparently  strong 
enough  for  bloom  only  accomplished  foliage.  Poor  satisfaction  !  I  am 
almost  disposed  to  give  the  palm  to  the  Lilium,  it  is  magnificent,  and 
the  perfume,  if  not  too  powerful,  all  that  need  be  desired.  It  is, 
however,  a  shy  bloomer,  and  I  have  never  seen  more  than  two 
blooms  on  one  stalk,  and  we  are  always  late  in  getting  the  bulbs. 
Neilgherrense,  a  neighbour  (in  the  catalogue),  and  also  a  greenhouse 
plant,  is  very  beautiful,  a  long  tubular  flower  of  pale  straw  colour,  and 
quite  6  inches  long.  Three  years  following  it  has  given  me  a  bloom; 
it  looked  when  repotted  equal  to  repeating  the  performance,  whilst 
smaller  bulbs  were  growing.  If  these  are  easily  detachable,  I  shall 
in  future  do  so,  as  the  smaller  must  have  their  share  of  the  nutriment. 
In  many  of  these  bulbs  I  should  not  think  such  separation  at  all 
advisable  when  the  whole  bulb  seems  to  have  two  heads  coming.  I 
do  not  think  two  heads  to  a  Lily  bulb  are  improving  to  them  more 
than  to  a  human  being.  I  have  grown  S.  Wallacei  for  several  years 
in  pots ;  the  bulbs  are  small,  and  it  seems  to  me  a  bulb  far  more  devoted 
to  increasing  stock  than  to  giving  blooms.  A  dozen  or  more  heads 
appear  and  grow  to  a  foot  in  height ;  perhaps  one  will  give  a  single 
blot  m,  perhaps  no  attempt  at  blossom,  the  pot  becomes  a  mass  of 
little  bulbs.  I  have  never  tried  it  outside,  but  Messrs.  Wallace  urge 
me  to  do  so.  I  certainly  last  year  did  put  out  lots  of  the  small 
bulbs,  but  they  were  affronted  and  did  but  little.  The  bloom,  however, 
if  you  do  succeed  in  getting  one,  is  very  pretty,  but  of  the  few  shoots 
that  have  bloomed,  not  one  shoot  has  given  me  more  than  a  single 
bloom. 
And  now  I  fear  your  readers  will  say  that  both  “  D.,  Deal,"  and 
I  give  but  slight  praise  to  the  Lilium  tribe  for  perpetuality.  Only  this 
day  did  I  meet  a  friend  of  mine  with  a  good  man  over  his  garden,  and 
with  a  beautiful  garden  where  many  plants  are  most  successfully  grown. 
Two  or  three  of  us  were  talking  over  bulbs,  and  we  drifted  on  to 
Liliums,  and  my  friend  said,  “  0,  yes  !  I  tried  a  lot  of  them  three 
years  ago,  but  they  all  dwindled  away.”  It  was  at  my  suggestion  he 
tried  them.  Evidently  he  did  not  consider  the  experiment  a  success. 
Of  the  many  varieties  I  have  tried,  I  can  only  point  to  candidum,  the 
Martagons,  the  old  Turk’s  Cap,  some  of  the  tigrinum  varieties,  especially 
flore-pleno,  davuricum  and  Henryi — this  latter  is  already  throwing  up 
a  head  nearly  an  inch  in  diameter,  but  this  bulb  is  in  a  border  outside 
my  greenhouse,  and  may  receive  some  help  in  its  precociousness  from  the 
hot-water  pipes.  Tnis  bulb  is  at  its  third  season,  and  now  besides  the 
grand  head  three  smaller  are  also  showing,  which  looks  as  if  it  were 
increasing.  This  Lily,  however,  still  keeps  up  a  high  price,  but  it 
certainly  is  not  my  idea  of  a  beautiful  Lily. 
With  all  said  against  their  perpetual  character,  there  is  much 
pleasure  to  be  got  out  of  the  tribe.  Harrisi,  the  old  Martagon, 
speciosum  (continental  forms),  and  the  common  auratum  can  all  be 
purchased  at  from  6d.  to  Is.,  and  with  the  exception  of  Martagon, 
which  rather  resents  pot  treatment,  will  do  well  in  a  sunny  window, 
and  give  an  infinity  of  delight  to  every  lover  of  beauty  or  of  flowers, 
and  especially  to  invalids,  to  whom  these  gems  of  the  floral  world  are 
a  great  solace.  It  may,  however,  happen  to  this  latter  class  that  the 
perfume  of  most  Lilies  may  be  a  discomfort,  especially  as  night 
approaches. — Y.  B.  A.  Z. 
Baltimore,  Argyllshire. 
That  we  have  still  a  school  of  enthusiastic  and  efficiently  equipped 
landscape  designers  is  surely  pronouncedly  asserted  in  the  finished 
artistic  conception,  whose  exaot  presentment  is  depioted  in  the 
illustration  furnished  on  this  page.  This  rocky  stream  and  bridge 
was  completed  from  a  plan  by  Mr.  Thomas  H.  Mawson,  and  appears 
in  his  splendid  work  on  “  The  Art  and  Craft  of  Garden  Making  ” 
(now  almost  in  its  second  edition),  and  from  whom  we  have  obtained 
permission  to  use  the  figure.  The  view  forms  part  of  the  grounds 
in  Major  Macrae  Gilstrap’s  charming  domain  on  Loch  Fyne.s  Mr. 
Mawson,  in  the  book  of  his  just  referred  to,  goes  on  to  say  that  “a 
good  view  of  the  mansion  can  be  obtained  from  the  steamers  to  and 
from  Inverary,  at  a  point  near  the  Beaconyor  Otter,  the  new  pier  at 
Otter  being  on  the  estate.  The  pier  is  now  the  principal  point  of 
debarkation  for  the  estate,  but  during  certain  months  of  the  year  the 
pier  at  Tighnabruaich  has  to  be  used,  and  as  this  is  some  twelve  miles 
distant,  it  was  considered  advisable  (on  account  of  its  isolation),  to  make 
the  mansion  and  grounds  in  themselves  as  complete  and  interesting  as 
possible. 
“  The  stream  has  been  a  somewhat  extensive  pieoe  of  work,  in  con- 
neotion  with  which  the  skill  of  Mr.  Pnlham  has  been  oalled  into  requi- 
sition.  A  part  of  this  work  with  the  little  bridge  is  shown  in  the 
illustration.  In  forming  this  work  there  were  two  considerations  of  a 
practical  nature  which  had  to  be  kept  in  view,  the  first  being  to  make 
the  banks  quite  safe  against  spates  or  floods,  and  the  second  to  con¬ 
struct  a  series  of  pools  for  fish  to  sport  in.  As  already  stated,  the  sides 
of  the  stream  were  previously  supported  by  rough  irregularly  built 
walls,  the  bottom  of  the  stream  being  rough  shaley  rock  ;  the  improve¬ 
ments  were  effected  by  removing  the  walls  and  excavating  a  part  of  the 
rock,  and  by  adding  stratas  of  rook  as  shown  in  the  illustration,  the 
result  being  much  more  in  harmony  with  the  surroundings  than  the 
former  restricted  conduit. 
“  Ballimore  is  an  ideal  place  for  anyone  with  a  love  for  an  arbori- 
cultural  or  botanical  collection,  and  this  fact  has  been  recognised  and 
taken  fullest  advantage  of  by  Major  Macrae  Gilstrap,  whose  collection 
of  ornamental  trees  and  flowering  plants  bids  fair  to  equal  that  of  any 
other  plaoe  on  which  the  writer  has  been  engaged.  The  beds  and 
borders  on  the  terrace  are  planted  with  a  choice  collection  of  hardy 
perennials,  florists’  flowers  and  Roses.  The  walls  are  clothed  with 
Honeysuckles,  Clematis,  climbing  Roses,  Wistarias,  Vitis  Coignetim 
Magnolias,  and  other  hardy  climbers.  In  the  quiet  pools  there  are 
choice  Ny mphsoas  and  other  aquatics  along  the  margin  of  the  stream 
are  Iris,  Caltha,  Spiraeas,  and  other  bog  plants,  and  also  large  quantities 
of  the  choicer  Daffodils  and  other  bulbous  plants,  all  of  whioh  give  pro¬ 
mise  of  naturalising  and  increasing.  The  terrace  borders  are  planted 
entirely  with  hardy  perennials  and  Roses.” 
