[OUR LILY GARDEN.]
PRACTICAL AIDS TO THE CULTURE OF LILIES.
By CHARLES PETERS.
Lilium Brownii.
Japan is the home of lily culture. Not only are the Japanese Islands rich in native lilies, but their inhabitants, imbued with a love of flowers, which to our Western minds is almost incomprehensible, have introduced into their country all the prominent plants of Eastern Asia. And with a knowledge which we possess in but a small degree, they have modified and beautified both their own plants and those that they have introduced from foreign countries.
The culture of the lily in Japan has reached a high stage of development, and most of our best varieties of lilies owe their origin to Japanese gardeners.
Foremost among the lilies of Japan is the one which bears the name of its native place. Lilium Japonicum Odorum is one of the very finest of the lilies, and in the strength of its perfume it is absolutely without a rival.
The true L. Japonicum, or, as it is now more generally termed, L. Japonicum Odorum is but little known in England, but an allied species, L. Brownii, is well known, and though not grown so frequently as it should be, it is deservedly popular.