Lilium Brownii var. Colchesteri, Wilson
4
83
This is the common trumpet-flowered Lily of China, and probably grows wild in every one of the eighteen provinces of the Empire from sea- level to 5,000 feet altitude according to climate. It is the Peh-ho" of the Chinese, and is also often cultivated for its bulb which is esteemed as a table delicacy. I have before me wild specimens from eight provinces rang- ing from Shensi in the north to Yunnan in the south and from Chekiang in the east to Szech'uan in the west, and am familiar with it as a wild plant I have seen from Kiangsi province to the confines of western Szech'uan. it as a cultivated plant in south Manchuria, the warmer parts of Korea and in Japan, and have specimens from these lands, but as a wild plant it is unknown from any country other than China. This Lily grows naturally In the glens among grasses and low shrubs, in rocky places especially. leading from the famous Yangtsze gorges it is a feature. A sun-loving Lily, the companion plants protect the young stem which rises erect from the bulb and gives off roots. The bulb is found from 3 to 5 inches down, and the loosely packed scales are easily broken.
A
Naturally a plant so widely distributed and, moreover, long cultivated in many places for its edible bulb may be expected to exhibit variation. perusal of the rather lengthy description which I have felt it necessary to draw up in detail shows that this is so. In fact, it varies enormously in certain characters. I have studied this Lily in the field for many years in the effort to understand it and had expected it would be necessary to recog- nise a number of forms. I have tried to distinguish forms by stem and leaf characters and by the anthers, but all to no purpose. The stem is usually smooth and gray green, and when dried shining and stramineous, but often it is spotted or suffused with rose-purple; sometimes it is scaberulous. The leaves are usually broadest above the middle, but on several specimens they are narrow-lanceolate. The broader they are the more pronounced is the petiole, but I have no proof that this variation in size of leaf is constant year after
year, neither does it appear to depend upon vigour for some strong specimens before me have narrow, others broad leaves. The stem is naked in the lower part, and usually the leaves are largest about its middle- height, and from 6 to 12 inches below the flowers are much reduced in size, so much so, in fact, that they might be termed almost bract-like. But here again there is no constancy for occasionally the leaves near the flowers are The normal in length and breadth with those elsewhere on the stem. fragrance of the flowers is delightful, and the combination of rose-purple and yellow in the opening flower charming."
་་
'Of its introduction I have told under the type species, and in the early years of the nineteenth century it appears to have been sent to England on several occasions. Robert Fortune reintroduced it, but the Lily never seems to have become established in English gardens. It figures as a minor item in the Japanese export Lily trade being there cultivated for the purpose. On various occasions I have shipped many hundreds of wild bulbs from China to England and to America. But these, like others before them, died out after a year or two. It is not hardy in New England, and I think it must be this tenderness that has caused it to be a difficult Lily in England. It needs good drainage, loam and leafsoil, and given these ought to thrive
May 1932.
97