If you wish to grow lilies, the first necessity is to obtain your bulbs. You can grow lilies from seed, and we will explain how to do this later, but for a beginner it is a most tedious and unsatisfactory proceeding. Whichever way you may grow lilies when you thoroughly know them, commence by growing them from bulbs only. Well, we must get these bulbs, and how are we to obtain them? We can either go to a seedsman and buy what we choose, or we can obtain our lilies from public auction-rooms. Both methods have their advantages, and both have their disadvantages. If you go to the seedsman you can buy all your bulbs at once, you can make your choice, and you need buy but one lily of each species. But you will have to pay high, often fancy prices for them, and you can never be sure that the bulbs are fresh. On the other hand, in the auction-room you usually must get a large number of one variety, and you cannot obtain all kinds at the same auction. But you will have but a small price to pay, in fact, only the current market price of the day. You will usually find that the bulbs are fresh, and when you know how to choose bulbs you will be able to secure first-rate articles for your money. [Illustration: LILY BULBS. (To scale ¼ of original diameter.) 1. _Lilium Umbellatum._ 2. _Lilium Auratum_ (small but good bulb). 3. Bulb and rhizome of _Lilium Canadense_. 4. Bulb of _Lilium Wallacei_. 5. Bulb of _Lilium Roezlii_. 6. Bulb of _Lilium Hansoni_. 7. Bulb of _Lilium Humboldti_.] The next question which you will ask is, "How much ought to be paid for the bulbs?" The bulbs vary much in price from several causes. Of course the price of one kind of lily is very different from that of another kind. For instance, bulbs of _Lilium Davuricum_ can be purchased at an auction for half-a-crown a dozen, whereas you will have to pay about a sovereign for a moderately good bulb of _Lilium Dalhansoni_. Again, the bulbs vary in price according to their size and condition; _Lilium Auratum_ bulbs cost from fourpence to half-a-crown each. The time of year also greatly influences the price of lily bulbs. Last May we bought twenty-five bulbs of _Lilium Auratum_ for a shilling. Six months previous, these same bulbs would have fetched about twenty-five shillings. Then the price varies much in different years owing to the success of the growers in Holland or Japan. For the guidance of our reader we will give some average prices for a few lilies. _Lilium Brownii_, ten for nine shillings. _Lilium Longiflorum_ (several varieties) from two to five shillings for ten. _Lilium Auratum_ about four shillings for ten. _Lilium Giganteum_, nine shillings for a single bulb. _Lilium Tigrinum_, _Candidum_, _Calcedonicum_, _Pyranaicum_, _Speciosum_, and _Elegans_, from four to six shillings a dozen. [Illustration: BULBS OF _Lilium Candidum_ OR MADONNA LILY. (To scale ¼ of original diameter.)