Abstract
THE eighth number of the Royal Horticultural Society's Lily Year-book (from the Society's Office, Vincent Square, Westminster, S.W.I, 5s. paper, 6s. cloth), makes a very effective attempt to keep pace with the multitudinous variations of these plants. Mr. A. Simmonds lists the names and origins of 114 hybrid lilies, and there are papers which clarify the taxonomic positions of Lilium bulbiferum and its varieties, by Dr. Fred Stoker, L. myriophyllum, by Mr. A. D. Cotton, and L. pardalinum and its allies, by Dr. Vollmer. A happy personal note is struck by Mr. A. D. Cotton, in a biography of the late Dr. E. H. Wilson, a vigorous botanical explorer who contributed greatly to liliaceous garden beauty. Capt. F. Kingdon Ward describes a new lily which he discovered in the Assam Himalayas, and Mr. M. Ogilvie-Grant has collected several new fritillaries in Greece. Other papers deal with the cultivation and horticultural grouping of the lilies which are now well-tried favourites of our gardens. Scientific work upon lily matters does not appear to have been great in amount. Dr. M. A. H. Tincker describes the rates of growth of roots in several species, and there is an account of a discussion on propagation. The net result, however, is to show the need for more accurate scientific knowledge of all phases of lily horticulture— the relation of lilies to soil conditions, to nutrition in general, to pests and diseases. There are, indeed, sufficient unanswered questions in the book to employ a lily research station for a considerable period.
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Horticulture of the Lily. Nature 144, 1042–1043 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/1441042d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1441042d0