230 FLORA HISTORICA. 



FRITILLARY. FritiUaria. 



CROWN IMPERIAL. 



Natural Order Coronaria;. Lilia, Juss. A Genus of 

 the Hexandria Monogynia Class. 



The Crown Imperial ; Lilies of all kinds, 



The Fower-de-Luce heing one ! O, these I lack, 



To make you garlands of. 



Shakspeare's Winters Tale. 



The Crown Imperial is one of the flowers that was 

 first introduced into this country in the time of our 

 great dramatic bard, who has celebrated it as above, 

 in a speech which Perdita makes to the Prince of 

 Bohemia. Gerard who was our principal writer on 

 plants in the days of Shakspeare, tells us, in 1597, 

 that he had then plenty of the Fritillary in his 

 garden at Holborn, but he calls it a rare and 

 strange plant. It was first sent from Constanti- 

 nople into the Christian countries of Europe by 

 Clusius, who forwarded it first to Vienna in the 

 year 1576, stating it to be a native plant of Persia, 

 growing in the woods of that country. It was, 

 therefore, for some time called Lilium Persicum, 

 Persian Lily ; but, as there was already another 



