The last two of the swamp lilies of North America stand apart from those which we have just considered, as they differ very greatly in almost every particular.
Lilium Humboldti, by far the finest of the swamp lilies, is a plant which every lover of gorgeous flowers should grow if he can. We said “if he can,” for we cannot grow it! The plants do very well till the blossoming season approaches, and then they die suddenly. Yet the bulbs are not diseased, and the roots are chiefly normal.
The bulb of this species is long, oblique, and perennial. It does not bear a rhizome, but it much resembles that of L. Washingtonianum.
In its growth and in its leaves this species resembles L. Washingtonianum, but its blossoms would surprise anybody who had never seen them. They are so different from any other flower in nature except the little lily which is described below. Ten, twenty, forty, even fifty blossoms may be borne by one stalk. These flowers are about four inches long, completely recurved, but the tips of the segments stand away from their bases on a pedicel of four or five inches length. In colour they are a flaming orange-yellow, quite a different kind of yellow from that of Monodelphum, spotted and splashed with a rich purple brown.
We wish we could grow this lily, but unfortunately this is one of our failures. It cannot be helped, we must try again; perhaps we shall discover how to grow it in time.
From the last paragraph it follows that our opinion upon the cultivation of this lily is not worth much. But we can tell you what not to do and what we intend to do next year.
Do not grow this lily in peat. We imagined that the same treatment as we gave the other swamp lilies would suit this one; but it did not. We believe that it will do best if treated as we advised for L. Washingtonianum or L. Monodelphum. Still, we cannot grow the lily ourselves, and we are not the only people who have difficulty with it. If you want to know how to cultivate this lily, you must discover the way yourself.
If you look at L. Humboldti through the wrong end of a telescope, you will get a very fair idea of Lilium Columbianum, the last of this group of lilies. It will not, however, be a perfect resemblance, for the flowers of the smaller species are more revolute and not nearly so richly spotted. The bulb of this lily is ovoidal in shape. Indeed, it is the only lily found in America which possesses an egg-shaped bulb.
This lily is not difficult to cultivate, a rich peaty soil with plenty of ditch mud suiting it admirably. It flowers in the middle of June, and is altogether a most satisfactory and beautiful plant.
(To be continued.)