Though this plant has been grown for centuries in gardens, there are but few varieties of it. One variety named _Aureo-Marginatis_ has its leaves bordered with golden-yellow and the autumn growth looks very striking in winter. Three other varieties are recognised. _Monstrosum_ or _Flora-pleno_, has double flowers. But the flowers themselves never develop, the bracts becoming a greenish-white. It is an ugly and worthless plant and is deservedly neglected. The two other varieties are called _peregrinus_ and _striatum_. In the latter the flowers are streaked with purple. Neither variety is of any value. The white lily is one of the oldest of all garden plants. It was certainly cultivated by the Romans, and is in all probability the origin of the “_Fleur de Lys_.” If you turn up _L. Candidum_ in any book of gardening, you will find something like this: “The _Lilium Candidum_ will grow anywhere, provided the soil is of a light sandy nature.” If you follow this advice, you will probably lose every one of your plants. We cannot, alas, tell you how to grow this lily to perfection, for the simple reason that we cannot do so ourselves. We can only tell you how not to grow it and how we have obtained moderate success. The bulbs must be planted early in autumn. It is best to plant them in late August or early September. If you defer planting till December or later, the bulbs will not produce an autumn crop of leaves, they will not send up a flower spike next season, and will probably lie rotting in the ground. Except in very exceptional circumstances this lily will not flower well the first year it is planted, for it needs several years to accustom itself to new surroundings. When once this plant is established and flowers well, it should never be disturbed. The bulbs should be planted about a foot deep. Often when the bulbs have been in the ground for some years, they will work their way to the surface. Even if this happens it is best to leave them alone, if they flower well. But if the blossoms begin to deteriorate, take up the bulbs and replant them. Now about the soil. _L. Candidum_ won’t grow in sand and does not like a sandy soil at all. It must have a rich moderately heavy loam of good depth. It is in the black heavy loam of the Thames valley that we have seen this lily at its best. It likes lime in the soil, but dislikes peat. If this lily is grown in light sandy soil, it grows beautifully till about the middle of May. Disease then commences and kills all your lilies with rapid strides, so that out of one hundred spikes you may get perhaps three half-rotten flowers. This has been our experience of growing this lily in the orthodox way, and we have lost very many hundreds of flowers through following the generally received opinions. _Lilium Candidum_ makes a fairly good pot-plant, if the pot in which it is placed is very deep.