Addisonia 63 



(Plate 256) 

 LILIUM CROCEUM 



Orange Lily 



Native of the Alpine regions of Europe 



Family Liliaceae Lily Family 



Lilium croceum Chaix, in Vill. Hist. PL Dauph. 1: 322. 1786. 



This glowing lily is often seen growing in small cottage gardens 

 in a cluster of as many as twenty stalks, each with about fifty 

 flowers, blooming over a period of several weeks. So luxuriant 

 is the cluster growing in the course of a few years from one original 

 bulb, that any one desiring a big return for little expense is advised 

 to plant Lilium croceum. The bulbs should be planted at least six 

 inches deep, as the plants are stem-rooting, and preferably in loose 

 sandy loam so as to encourage them to indulge in a habit Elwes at- 

 tributes to them. He says the bulbs grow long stolons which bear 

 bulbs at various parts of them; from these later-growing bulbs stems 

 arise at some distance from the parent stem, thus forming a colony. 

 It is a good plan to divide them every few years. 



This species is found in Switzerland, Southern France, Corsica, 

 and the hills of Tuscany. The variety here described and illus- 

 trated is evidently the one originally from Corsica. The plant grew 

 at the New York Botanical Garden from a bulb purchased of 

 F. H. Horsford. Another variety is L. croceum Chaixi, which 

 is a dwarf plant from the Maritime Alps with generally one 

 and never more than three flowers and is earlier-flowering than the 

 common Lilium croceum. The difference between these two va- 

 rieties and also between L. croceum and L. bulbiferum is hard to 

 determine on account of their having been in cultivation so long. 

 Lilium croceum has crossed with as widely different a species as 

 Lilium elegans. 



Miss Jekyll, in her "Lilies for English gardens" says, "it is a 

 flower for the sunny garden border, carrying its grand deep orange 

 cups for nearly three weeks and its deep closely leafed stems thru 

 the summer. It will do well among shrubs in half shade, indeed 

 it is so hardy that there is scarcely any kind of garden space in 

 which it will refuse to grow." 



The orange lily blooms in June and July, and the flowers are 

 without scent. The bulb is white with broad coarse scales and 



