THE BERMUDA LILY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20354, 10 March 1928, Page 3

THE BERMUDA LILY.

By Lawisknce Oca.vn:, M.Sc. (Cantab.), Department of Agriculture, Bermuda. The Bermuda Easter Lily (Liliura longiflorum vur. eximium, Baker) first reached Bermuda about 1872, probably from Europe, for it had been known on the Continent for some 40 years previously. It is doubtless a native of the fjukiu or Loo-ohoo Archipelago, a chain of islands stretching from the south of Japan to Formosa, and strikingly similar to Bermuda in their equable though humid climate and calcareous soil. These islands are the native habitat of the Japanese trumpet Lily, Lilium longiflorum, Thunberg, to which the Bermuda Lily is closely related. The first bulbs to read) Bermuda wore grown in gardens in the historic capital, St. Georges, whore their vigorous growth and the beauty of their floweys soon attracted attention. Their commercial possibilities were first realised by Genera! Russell Hastings, formerly of Ohio, a retired civil war veteran, who had made his home at the estate of Soncy, near Hamilton. He collected as many of the bulbs as possible, and started the cultivation of lily bullrs on a large scale. He soon discovered that the soil, temperature, and humidity prevailing in Bermuda were admirably suited to its growth. Entering into agreements with firms in New York and elsewhere, he found the business an extremely profitable one, and it was not long before others followed his lead, and the cultivation of the lily was undertaken all over the islands. The present trade name of the lily, “ Lilium Hanisii,” was given to it by Mr W. K. Harris, a well-known grower of Philadelphia, who received bulbs from Bermuda in 1376 from a Mr Thomas P. Sargent. In 1883 the Bermuda lily first attracted attention in England. A fine spike was exhibited by Mr G. F. Wilson, of Weybridge, at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, and was awarded a firstclass certificate. Subsequent to that date, the lily attained great popularity in the United States and in Engand, as numerous reference.? to it in horticultural journals testify. About the year 1900, however, a “ peculiar sickness ” became very prevalent in the lily fields, and after that date the number of cases exported rapidly declined until before the war they reached a negligible quantity. Recent work carried on at the Department of Agriculture, Bermuda, has shown that the cause of the decline (jf the industry was one, if not two, virus diseases, strikingly similar to the well-known “ degeneration ” diseases o{ potatoes—leaf-roll and mosaic. It has been shown that one of these diseases is conveyed from plant to plant by an aphis. The symptoms on the plant are very marked, bringing about an extreme dwarfing of both plant and bulb. The greenhouse men found that the bulbs produced dwarfed or distorted plants, which failed to flower properly, hence they gave up growing the Bermuda bulbs and welcomed the formosums, gigantenms, and multifionuns, which were coming in large quantities from Japan and the Azores. After the conclusion of the war, however, the more progressive of the lilygrowers in Bermuda made an attempt to resuscitate the industry by the improvement of their types of bulb and by combating disease. The growers selected vigorous bulbs of good shape and true to type, and propagated vegetalively from those only. By such means they were able to secure remarkably uniform‘fields in a few years. The fresh light thrown on the diseases of the lily by the investigations carried on bv the* Bermuda Department of Agriculture enabled control measures to_ be instituted which soon resulted in their practical elimination. The results of these measures have been very gratifying. The fields are now of remarkable uniformity, disease is practically absent, and the number of cases exported has rhen from 1604 in 1922 to over 6COO in 1927. There are indications that the Bermuda | Easter Lilv is again finding its way into popular favour in England. Many testimonials as to its high quality have been received by the department. Amongst these is a letter, dated April 19, '1927, from Dr A. W. Hill, director, of Kow Gardens, in which ho fefers to a display of lilies grown from Bermuda bulbs in the Kew greenhouses —The bulbs of the Bermuda Lilies which were sent over to Kew , are making a magnificent display of flower. The plants are about sft high, and each | one carries some seven to nine flowers, and I they are perfectly healthy and quite the best lilies \v e have ever had in cultivation here. We have bad them labelled that they tame from Bermuda.”