60 



FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 



&& 



The Lily family is noteworthy as containing a large proportion 

 not only of our most beautiful wild flowers, but also of the various ex- 

 otics which we cultivate for early l:)looming. Thus the little squill 

 (Scifla) hangs out its blue bells with the first soft breaths of spring, 

 and is followed in quick succession by the showy Tulips and Hyacinths, 

 the Fritillarias and the stately Crown-imperial {Tmpei'kdts). In the 

 woods at about the same season blossoms that exquisite flower which 

 has so long staggered under the unmeaning and inaccurate name of 



"Dog's-tooth Violet," as if 

 anything in the floral world 

 could be more remote in ap- 

 pearance as well as structure 

 than the lily and the true 

 violet. The plant is some- 

 times, but not often, called 

 by the quite appropriate 

 term "Adder's Tongue," but 

 it might be still better called 

 what it is, namely, an Ery- 

 thronium. The Lilies of the 

 field and garden {LUhnn)^ 

 the old-fashioned Day-lilies 

 (^HemerocalUs) and the tall 

 Yuccas are too well-known to 

 need more than a passing 

 comment. I presume that 

 the onion, however, would 

 scarcely l)e admitted as a true 

 Liliaceous plant except by 

 botanists. Nevertheless it belongs there, and the small flowers, when 

 examined under a lens, are really quite lily-like in appearance. 



The bulbs of many of the lilyworts, as they were called by Lind- 

 ley, are mucilazinous and contain medicinal properties. The well 

 known drug syrup of squills is obtained from the South European 

 Scilla maritima. The onion and its varieties, botanically known as 

 species of All hi m^ is one of our most familiar garden vegetables. 

 Aloes are obtained from Aloe, a genus extensively distributed in Africa; 

 while the original "dragon's-blood," a drug now obtained from, 

 numerous plants, was derived from Draatna Draco. 



Fig. 44.— Various species of Lilium: L. canadense: 

 L. pardalinuni; L. p'ailadelpliicum; L. superbum. 



