Yet it is a very striking lily, growing to the height of four or five feet and producing a great cluster of buff-coloured blossoms. In general features it resembles its parent _L. Candidum_, but the flower shows a distinct connection with the Martagons. Its colour certainly is not derived from either of its parents. A mixture of scarlet and pure white should give pink; but _L. Testaceum_ is of a yellowish-buff colour. The lily which it most nearly resembles is _L. Monodelphum_; but though very fine, it is nothing like so splendid as that queen of the Martagons. This lily is distinctly a cottage-garden flower. Except in that situation it is never seen. Yet it is common enough in old cottage-gardens, and a more befitting flower can scarcely be imagined. It looks old—in keeping with the place which it enhances by its presence. The cultivation of this lily is the same as that of _L. Candidum_. It does not do well until it is well established, and it has a particular objection to growing in modern gardens. _Lilium Parkmanni_ is the hybrid between _L. Auratum_ and _L. Speciosum_. Genuine specimens bear blossoms somewhat intermediate between the parent species. There is also a hybrid between _L. Hansoni_ and _L. Martagon Dalmaticum_, called _Lilium Dalhansoni_. These four hybrids are the only ones which deserve to be mentioned, and of these only the first two are worth a place in the flower-garden. (_To be concluded._) CHOCOLATE DATES. Have you ever tasted chocolate dates? If so, these directions will be almost needless to you, for I fancy that you will not have stopped at a taste, but will have tried and found out a way to manufacture them for yourself. But so far as I know, these dates are, as yet, quite a home-made sweet, and they are so delicious and so wholesome that they ought to be more widely known. Here then is the recipe. Any sort of dates and any sort of chocolate may be used, but the best results are got from the best materials in confectionary even more than in other work. Take then a pound of Tunis dates, either bought in the familiar oblong boxes or by the pound. Leave out any which are not perfectly ripe; the soapy taste of one of these paler, firmer dates is enough to disgust anyone with dates for ever. Wipe the others very gently with a damp cloth (dates are not gathered by the Dutch!), slit them lengthwise with a silver knife, but only so far as to enable you to extract the kernel without bruising the fruit. Then prepare the chocolate. Grate a quarter of a pound of best French chocolate, add an equal weight of fresh icing sugar, two tablespoonfuls of boiling water, and mix in a small brass or earthenware saucepan over the fire until quite smooth, only it must _not_ boil; last of all add a few drops of vanilla.