Come, solemn Night, and spread thy pall Wide o’er the slumbering shore and sea, And hang along thy vaulted hall The star-lights of eternity; Thy beacons, beautiful and bright— Isles in the ocean of the blest— That guide the parted spirit’s flight Unto the land of rest. Come—for the evening glories fade, Quenched in the ocean’s depths profound; Come with thy solitude and shade, Thy silence and thy sound; Awake the deep and lonely lay From wood and stream, of saddening tone; The harmonies unheard by day, The music all thine own! And with thy starry eyes that weep Their silent dews on flower and tree, My heart shall solemn vigils keep— My thoughts converse with thee; Upon whose glowing page expand The revelations of the sky; Which knowledge teach to every land, Of man’s high destiny. For while the mighty orbs of fire (So “wildly bright” they seem to live) Feel not the beauty they inspire, Nor see the light they give; Even I, an atom of the earth— Itself an atom ’midst the frame Of nature—can inquire their birth, And ask them whence they came. OUR LILY GARDEN. PRACTICAL AIDS TO THE CULTURE OF LILIES. BY CHARLES PETERS. There are but few lilies left for us to describe, and these are of very little importance to the flower-grower. [Illustration: _Lilium Auratum._] _Lilium Concolor_ and _Lilium Davidii_ are usually considered under the Isolirion group, but they present such numerous deviations from that group of lilies that we have decided to make a group of them alone. _Lilium Concolor_ is a pretty, little, very variable lily. It is more suitable for a button-hole decoration than for anything else, but it has a pleasing effect when grown in great masses. This species has a very small bulb with few, acute, oblong scales. The plant grows to about a foot high, and bears from one to three flowers about an inch and a half across, and of a deep crimson colour spotted with black. The flowers open very wide, and the filaments are shorter than in any other lily. Of the great number of varieties of this lily we will describe two. The first, named _Buschianum_, or _Sinicum_, grows taller, has larger leaves, and larger and more numerous blossoms, which are of a fine crimson. The second variety, _Coridion_, is by far the handsomest of the group, bearing large flowers of a bright yellow spotted with brown. _Concolor_ is a native of Western Asia. Its culture is very simple, and it is perfectly hardy. Of _Lilium Davidii_, we only know that it was discovered by David in Thibet; that it grows about two feet high, and bears bright yellow flowers spotted with brown. We also know that there is a plate of this species in Elwes’s Monograph. The plant is practically unknown to everybody.