232 FLORA HISTORICA. 



deportment and brilliancy of colouring, considered 

 the sovereign. 



The Lily's height bespoke command, 



A fair imperial flower ; 

 She seem'd design'd for Flora's hand, 



The sceptre of her power. 



The Crown Imperial is therefore made the emblem 

 of majesty, and the representative of power, in 

 floral language. 



In the Turkish language this flower is called 

 Tusai or Tuschai, as well as Turfani or Turfanda ; 

 and as it was obtained from the Turks under this 

 name, it ought, in justice, to have retained its 

 original appellation. 



This Lily of the turbaned countries towers above 

 all the flowers of our vernal parterres, throwing up 

 its tall stem amidst the dwarf flowers of April, like 

 the tall Palm amongst trees, or a pagoda arising 

 out of a Chinese town. At the top of its stem is 

 supported a circle of Tulip-shaped corollas turned 

 downwards, which have the appearance of so many 

 gay bells, the stigma answering for the clapper. 

 The whole being crowned by a coma, or a tuft of 

 green leaves, gives it a singular and agreeable 

 effect ; and when the bulbs are suffered to remain 

 two or three years in the earth, which should be a 

 light dry soil free from dung, they frequently send 

 up a stem that carries two or three whorls of pen- 



