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when their leaves drop. The offsets too, must be removed because they would
exhaust the old bulbs if they remained. Still, one must not leave them
unplanted
(above ground) for long and must [then] not transplant them when their
leaves
have appeared above ground. Both actions would weaken the roots so
severely
that they could not flower the following summer.
The fourth species appears to be different from the common white lily only
fortuitously, by their stalks being very broad. It has generally twice
as many flowers on each stalk as the common species and is propagated
in the same manner.
The fifth species is a great ornament of borders, because its lovely mottled
(maculate) tepals show always in September. As it is a plant that stays
green all winter, it gives, so van Kampen says, a pleasing show,
because there are anyway only few beautiful flowers visible. For this
reason it has been planted much in English gardens for some years. It
is grown like the common species, but the bulb has always to be planted
in fresh, light soil where it grows exceptionally well. But if manure
is added to the soil, the bulb will decay in it as certain as in a wet
and rich soil. The time to transplant these bulbs is the same as for
the common species.
There are two species of the white lily with purple stripes of which one is
far more beautifully mottled than the other. Both are raised from seed.
They can be propagated in the same way as the common species, but must
be planted in a dry and sandy soil that receives morning sun and that
is mixed with some chalk rubble; because [with this regime] they will
flower exceedingly beautiful. Their stripes too will be a deeper dark
red than if they stood in a more nutrient-rich soil and their roots
will multiply better as well.
The common orange lily is so well known that it is unnecessary to discuss it
here. That species that is generally called the double orange lily
differs from the common [lily] only by the fact that each flower
includes two or three more [additional] tepals . This, however, is not
constant, because it degenerates easily and changes [back] to the
common species. One propagates them with the offsets of the old bulbs
which it generates very frequently. Therefore the roots should never
remain less than two years without being transplanted. The number of
these offsets would weaken the plants too much and they would generate
smaller and fewer flowers. They can be transplanted, whenever, from the
start of August to the end of October. Because when their stalks have
wilted, they do not shoot straight away like the white lilies but
remain [quiescent] until February before they show again above the
ground. One should, therefore, not transplant them later than in
October. They grow in almost every soil and in every position, but best
in a dry light soil and in an open location.
The bulbiferous fire lily flowers three weeks before the common species but
proliferates more strongly. On the flower stalk it bears in leaf axils
small bulbils that, if removed and planted, become within two years
*) L. s., page 126
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