Addisonia 53 



(Plate 251) 



LILIUM TIGRINUM 

 Tiger Lily 



Native of China and Japan 

 Family Liliaceae Lily Family 



Litium tigrinum Gawler, Bot. Mag. pi. 1237. 1809. 



Living plants of this species were included in the first consign- 

 ment of plants sent (1804) from China by William Kerr to the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England. The species proved to 

 be the hardiest and most easily propagated of all lilies, as its exten- 

 sive cultivation in Europe and America readily shows. The 

 tiger lily maintains itself readily under average garden con- 

 ditions and in abandoned gardens, and as escaped from cultivation 

 it may be considered as naturalized in some localities. The vigorous 

 growth is in large part due to the development of roots on the stem 

 above the bulb. Daughter-bulbs readily develop, soon producing 

 a cluster of bulbs from which numerous stems arise. New flowering 

 plants from the bulblets may be obtained in a period of two years. 



There are several varieties in cultivation differing slightly in the 

 intensity of flower color, in the amount of pubescence on the stem, 

 and in vegetative vigor. One variety is double-flowered. Wild 

 plants of this species, collected in the region about Kuling, Kiangsu, 

 China, have been obtained for the New York Botanical Garden 

 through Dr. J. L. Buck, Dean of the College of Agriculture, Uni- 

 versity of Nanking, China. These are practically identical with 

 the plant illustrated in the accompanying plate, except that they 

 have thus far been of less vigorous growth. 



There appear to be only two references to the pods and seeds of 

 this species. The stocks cultivated appear to be fully incompatible 

 in fertilization, a type of sterility very frequent among hermaph- 

 rodite plants, and particularly common in species of this genus. 

 The pod shown in the plate is from one of the plants obtained from 

 Kuling, China, and was obtained by using pollen of L. Maximowiczii. 

 The other figures are of a plant that has grown in the New York 

 Botanical Garden for many years. 



The tiger lily is an herbaceous bulblet-bearing perennial usually 

 growing to the height of from four to six feet. The stems are stiff, 

 erect and unbranched, purplish brown in blotches, and with grayish 



